


Dead Hearts

by Kylo_Skywalker



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst and Feels, Elektra & Finn are babies, Elektra & Poe is precious, F/F, Female Solo, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Sensitivity, Kylo Ren is trying his best here, Lesbians in Space, Movie: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Movie: Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Movie: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Rey is Not a Palpatine, Reytra, Sibling Bonding, Slow Burn, Solo Twins, finnpoe is canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:21:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 21
Words: 161,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22097053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kylo_Skywalker/pseuds/Kylo_Skywalker
Summary: Elektra Ren, born as Bre Solo, is the twin sister of Kylo Ren / Ben Solo and the daughter of Han Solo and Leia Organa. She was taught by her Uncle Luke alongside Kylo until Luke sensed that Kylo was being corrupted by Supreme Leader Snoke, contemplating on killing him which caused Kylo to lash out. Elektra followed after her brother even after Luke begged her to stay because he knew that she had the light of being a Skywalker, just like how he had.Next to her big brother and under his orders within the First Order, Elektra trains Stormtroopers on updated and proper shooting techniques and from this, that’s how she meets the young trooper by the name of FN-2187. She senses that he doesn’t truly believe in the First Order and begins having doubts which she relates with. When news of a map finding Skywalker comes to light, Elektra finds her moment to finally leave the First Order and help bring peace back to the galaxy.
Relationships: Ben Solo | Kylo Ren & Original Female Character(s), Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker & Ben Solo & Han Solo & Original Female Character(s), Poe Dameron & Finn & Original Female Character(s), Poe Dameron/Finn, Rey/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 69





	1. The Droid

**Author's Note:**

> Luke Skywalker has vanished. In his absence, the sinister First Order has risen from the ashes of the Empire and will not rest until Skywalker, the last Jedi, has been destroyed.
> 
> With the support of the Republic, General Leia Organa leads a brave Resistance. She is desperate to find her brother Luke and gain his help in restoring peace and justice to the galaxy. Leia has sent her most daring pilot on a secret mission to Jakku, where an old ally has discovered a clue to Luke's whereabouts . . . .

_A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away . . ._

A vast Star Destroyer releases four transport ships filled with numerous groups of Stormtroopers holding attention, flying off to a distant planet that was called Jakku; remote, lawless, and inhospitable. On the planet, gazing up at the sky to see the four ships was a round and skittery droid that was colored orange and white, his name BB-8. He beeps repeatedly, kinda like in a morse code, being worried as he turned and rolled off back into the village. 

In a primitive hut there was an old explorer of the name Lor San Tekka, placing a leather bag in a Resistance Pilot’s hand before moving his fingers up to enclose it within his palm. The pilot wore a jacket and had a remarkable sense of charisma about him—a natural spark as Lor San Tekka came to think of it. 

“This will begin to make things right. I’ve traveled too far, and seen too much, to ignore the despair in the galaxy.” He states, “Without the Jedi, there can be no balance in the Force.”

The pilot, Poe Dameron, he inspected the bag before darting his dark brown up to focus on Lor San Tekka. “Well, because of you now we have a chance. The General’s been after this for a long time.”

“Oh, ‘the General’?” Lor San Tekka gives a small smile. “To me, she’s royalty.”

“Well, she certainly is that.” Poe chuckles, nodding his head in agreement just as BB-8 rolls straight on in the hut, him chirping frantically as Lor San Tekka and Poe watched how the little droid seemed to be very concerned. Poe turns, “We got company.” 

He strolls straight out with BB-8 at his side, hearing the Tuanul villagers shouting which makes him draw out his quadnoculars and search the night sky to see the four transport ships coming in. Poe removes his noculars, taking in a deep breath before exhaling. 

“You have to hide.” 

“You have to leave.” Lor San Tekka remarks, his eyes seemingly getting watery. Poe glances up at him to meet his wandering gaze, conflicted about the decision to leave. He wanted to help, to stand and fight. “Go.”

Poe motions to BB-8, them taking off and weaving through the many people in the village as they readied their blasters and hid behind structures for cover, setting up their sights on the ships that began their landing; picking up dust and flying it all over before the cargo hold doors released and the Stormtroopers came out with their own blasters. 

Poe ran as fast as he could across the unleveled sand, his breath panting. “Come on, BB-8, hurry!” The droid chirps back in response, them making it to Poe’s X-wing fighter. 

Poe crawls up the ladder into the cockpit while BB-8 rolled underneath, the bottom lever coming down like a drop cawl and picking him up to be loaded into the plane. The fighter comes to life, Poe flicking on the switches and controls as BB-8 nervously chirps, seeing that Stormtroopers noticed them. 

“Blast that X-wing!” One orders to two of them. “Over there! Over there!” 

The fighter jerks, being shot in the back which trigg

ered alarms to go off and Poe to grunt in agony but mostly annoyance. Three more shots to the back, Poe staying still as BB-8 began his morse code speaking once more. 

“I see ‘em!” 

Poe grabs the controls, glancing in the rearview and fires at the Troopers, using the X-wing’s drop-down antipersonnel blaster. The two Troopers were blasted backwards from the large, exploding hits and he took this as an opportunity to try and start the ship but the engine sputters. Knowing the worst, he opens his canopy, grabbing his blaster and jumps down in a heap, moving to the back of his ship to see the damage on the rear engine panel. They were stuck; in trouble. 

From behind, Poe heard a villager screaming and turned to see one stuck between two Stormtroopers who were about to kill him. Poe took aim, shooting the Troopers down. The villager looked to Poe, thanking him with a nod and continued to run for safety. 

BB-8 got out of the ship as well, rolling up to Poe and Poe stared at the small droid, quickly thinking and took out the small leather bag and poured the small artifact into his palm. “You take this. It’s safer with you than it is with me.” BB-8’s multi-reader opens, Poe storing it inside and the droid reads it. “You get as far away from here as you can. Do you hear me?”

BB-8 heeps, hesitating. 

“I’ll come back for you! It’ll be alright.” He yells over the screaming and blasts that were sounding off, leaving the droid to head into the village to continue fighting while BB-8 left. Ducking down behind an old rock, firing, he hit two Stormtroopers and found another, tracking him down and fired once more. 

The Trooper went down and another watched, rushing over and kneeling down to try and help. Wounded, the one lifted his torn glove—hand visible and covered in blood—up to the other, smearing his blood on the helmet before passing out; before dying. The Stormtrooper stayed still for a moment, finding himself getting overwhelmed and standing up, gasping from within his mask. His head turned every which way, overwhelmed by the battle that was going on. He ran over behind a structure, hiding himself to try and calm down. 

Lor San Tekka trekked through the wreckage, seeing Stormtroopers with flamethrowers burning huts and weaving baskets that they use to collect food in— _used_ to collect food in. Bodies littered the ground, villagers and Troopers, but villagers more than anything. His eyes traveled around seeing the alive villagers surrendering, being rounded up like cattle as the penned up animals were in panic. 

In the sky, a new imposing shuttle craft was coming and he gazed up, seeing the vertical wingspan of 90 feet tall, landing near the transport vehicles. Two Stormtroopers came up, gathering him by the arms and directed him over to where everyone else was while the Stormtroopers all stood together, including the one with the mask marked in blood. He waited, seeing the cargo hold of the ship opening up and through the wind and smoke, a tall, dark figure strides down the ramp with a girl at his side and two Troopers following behind them. 

The figure was dressed in all black which had been tailored around his lean physique, predominantly made from a soft and flexible material. His belt and boots are leather-based and he wore a metal mask that he had made himself, bearing a few similarities to Darth Vader’s. It envelopes his whole head, featuring ornamental patterns that draw contours around his visor. The girl was slim, with a high forehead, full lips, tanned skin with blue-green eyes and a youthful face. She wore black face paint that surrounded her eyes, making them appear more bright and furious. Her hair is long, wavy and brown, she always kept her bangs tied back, a few sections in a traditional web of braids that connected to other sections; all big and small. Her outfit was of a long black jacket, sleeved shirt with black jeans, black leather boots, a belt which held her blaster pistol, and silver armor shoulder pads and wrist cuffs for protection. 

Everyone in the whole entire galaxy had at least heard of them once, maybe twice. They were twins and held a ruthless reputation, they were known as Kylo and Elektra Ren. 

Kylo charged his way up to Lor San Tekka, staring at him through his mask and spoke in his deep dark voice that the helmet gave him to disguise his normal voice. “Look how old you’ve become.”

“Something far worse has happened to you.”

“You know what I’ve come for.” 

“I know where you come from.” Lor San Tekka remarks, “Before you called yourself Kylo Ren—” he pauses and takes a gander at the girl—“and her, Elektra Ren.”

Elektra peered from Lor San Tekka to her brother, secretly thinking to herself as Kylo continued on. “The map to Skywalker. We know you found it. And now, you’re going to give it to the First Order.” He started trailing off, eyeing the rounded up villagers who were surrounded by the Stormtroopers. 

“The First Order rose from the dark side . . . you did not.” 

Kylo turned back, strolling up into Lor San Tekka’s face. “I’ll _show_ you the dark side.”

“You may try. But you cannot deny the truth that is your family.” He states with a small grin, taking a small peer over at Elektra who stood solid and still, hand resting on her holster for her pistol. 

“You’re so right.” Suddenly, Kylo Ren raises his lightsaber, igniting it, two perpendicular smaller blades at the hilt and the main blade radiating yellow-red energy, spitting sparks as he brought it down across Lor San Tekka. 

Poe Dameron finally came out of his hiding, shooting his blaster at Kylo but the boy whips around, throwing out his arm and making the bolt of energy from the blaster strain and vibrating in midair along with Poe. Stormtroopers run over and grab him, ceasing him while the bolt was still pulsating in place as they passed. Kicked down on his knees, Poe falls, groaning and gazes up at Elektra and seen that she looked uncomfortable. It made him curious, and Kylo sensed it, kneeling down in front of him so his attention would go to him. 

Poe eyes the mask, seeing his reflection staring back at him while Kylo just studied him. “So, who talks first? You talk first? I talk first?”

After a few more seconds of silence, Kylo spoke. “The old man gave it to you.” 

Poe then motions his hand, indicating Kylo’s mask. “It’s just very hard to understand you with all the . . .”

“Search him.” Kylo stands back up, the Troopers grabbing Poe and picking him up. 

“. . . Apparatus.” He finished. 

After searching, the Trooper announced that he had nothing on him but he _did_ have something. “Put him on board.” The two complied, doing as told and Elektra followed with her eyes, seeing him being taken on and spotted the female chrome-skinned, blackcaped head Stormtrooper. Captain Phasma. 

“Sir, the villagers?” 

“Kill them all.” 

All the Stormtroopers readied their blasters, aiming at the crowd of people and Elektra felt her heart sank as she heard them all shriek in terror. 

“No,” she instantly looks to her brother. “No, you said we were just getting the map. If you sensed that that man that you just boarded on the ship has _any_ idea of where the map is, then there’s no need to do this.” 

“Sir, I believe your sister needs to go and rest on the ship. It had been a long night for her.” Captain Phasma declares in a tone that was borderline nuisance. 

Elektra and Phasma had never quite got along due to the fact that Elektra trained the Stormtroopers rather than Phasma even though she was the head leader of them; it was Kylo’s idea because he knew how much his sister had the potential of being a great fighter and leader of the Stormtroopers. With that title, Phasma felt like second best to Kylo and it gave her a hatred towards Elektra. 

“I don’t need rest.” Elektra bickered back, glaring at the head Trooper. “I just know where our business lies and it’s on that ship with that man! Killing the villagers wasn’t apart of the plan.” She then faced her brother again. “ _Kylo,_ ”

He goes back to eyeing the villagers and back to his sister. “They know we’re looking for the map, it makes them liabilities. We can’t have _anyone_ knowing we’re after it, too.” 

“Anyone . .” Elektra muttered, knowing what he was really hinting at. 

Kylo gazed to Phasma, nodding in confirmation. She then stepped up, eyeing all the other Troopers. “On my command.” All the Troopers, aimed again and the one with blood on his helmet, took aim as well. “Fire.” 

Elektra watched, seeing how they all started killing every single person that was in the village. She felt herself getting upset, watching them all fire except for one that had blood on his helmet. Automatically, she knew it was FN-2187. He was a sensible Stormtrooper unlike any other and she knew that there was good in him, she could see it clear as day because he was like her. She was tired of all of the death and destruction, and the only reason why she stayed was because it was all that she’s ever known. They were alike. 

Once the fire came to a halt, all the Stormtroopers began gathering up the dead people while Kylo watched as they did with Elektra at his side, per usual. Elektra still kept her focus on the Stormtrooper, him meeting her stare. Kylo paused, feeling something and looked at the same Trooper for a good minute before giving a tap on Elektra’s side, heading straight for their ship and the bolt that Kylo had frozen in place was finally released and it flew directly into the structure that was nearby the Trooper; scaring the hell out of him. 

Over by the X-Wing, three Stormtroopers began firing at it, making it explode and in the far off distance, BB-8 turns and witnesses the fireball. Afraid, BB-8 continues on his own in the mysterious, dark desert, passing an animal, its red eyes lifting from the sand, watching the rolling droid, who just keeps going.

Flying away from Jakku, the Troop transports and shuttle return to the massive Star Destroyer, parking in the hangar. There, Poe is taken out in shackles and being pushed by a Trooper. “Alright, alright.” He grumbles, trying to rip his arm out of the Trooper’s grasp, gazing around to see the base which left him speechless as the PA system came on and another Trooper retrieved him and took him away to the interrogation room. 

FN-2187 stood in the middle of the hangar, panting while he entered the back of the one transporter and took off his helmet for a proper breather. His face was covered in sweat, and he was heaving like there was no tomorrow. 

“FN-2187.” He heard Phasma’s voice from behind him, already knowing he was in trouble as he turned and stared at her over his right shoulder. “Submit your blaster for inspection.” 

He turns back, trying to calm himself down. “Yes, Captain.”

“And who gave you permission to remove that helmet?” 

“I’m sor—”

“It was me, Phasma.” He and Phasma turned, seeing Elektra standing on the ramp with her back straight and held the look of authority. “He seemed like he needed a breather after the big night tonight. And you were right, I did need to rest. I presume you should do the same after the inspections.” 

Phasma ignored her, glancing back to FN-2187. “Report to my division at once.” She headed out, purposely bumping into Elektra. Elektra bites her tongue, rolling her eyes and watched as FN-2187 put back on his helmet and turned at attention. She gave him a small smile, stepping back to let him know that he could pass by without any conflict. He does, but not before giving her a “thank you”. 

Back on Jakku, a scavenger by the name of Rey had been searching for parts to pawn in her small village of the Niima Outpost. She handed her machine parts to Unkar Plutt, a fifty year old blobfish who was unclean. He was the boss of the service window, standing behind a protective screen. He examines her pieces, telling her that he’d only give her a quarter portion for it. She was upset, not showing it because she was hungry and this was the price for food. She nods and Unkar pushes through his transfer drawer a sealed packet that contained dried green meat in one section and beige powder in another. She takes it, swallowing her resentment and heads off to her home which was an ancient, fallen AT-AT. 

She scratches the side wall, marking how many days she’s been there on Jakku and passed by an old doll Resistance doll she created when she was younger to keep her company because for as long as she can remember, she’s been lonely and ramshackle dwelling. She cooks for herself the dried green meat and places the powder into a bowl of water, making it milkey and using her finger to stir it around until it turns into a loaf. Rey grabs the meat, serving it for herself on an olde plate and the loaf. She grabs one of her canteens of water, heading outside to sit in the sand while she ate hungrily. She finishes, licking the plate and grabs the broken Resistance helmet that she found in the wreckage, putting it on her head and smiling until she heard a noise of distress. 

Rey took off the helmet, finding her quarterstaff and runs up a dune to see an orange and white droid—BB-8—caught in a net by Teedo, a small, brutish desert tyrant, who rides a Luggabeast. He argues with the droid and the droid argues back, Rey then yells. 

“Tal’ama parqual!” She shouts in alien dialect. Teedo and the droid stop, looking to her as they went silent. “Parqual zatana!”

Teedo yells back, being threatening as BB-8’s head swivels to him, then back to Rey, like watching a tennis match. Rey hurries down the dune, angrily moving, pulling a knife from her pouch and Rey starts cutting BB-8 out of the netting. 

Teedo freaks out, yelling and Rey stands after freeing the droid, turns to Teedo and says, fiercely, “NOMA.”

Teedo barks a sort of shout, which if anyone who didn’t speak the dialect, could instantly translate it to him saying, “GO TO HELL!” He heads off on his beast which prompts BB-8 to

Start beep-yelling at the departing bully, provocatively. Rey shushes him and BB-8 quiets instantly.

“That’s just Teedo. Wants you for parts. He has no respect for anyone.” Rey informs the droid, noticing his antenna. “Your antenna’s bent.” She kneels, taking it off of him and fixes it for him. “Where do you come from?”

BB-8 chirps excitedly as Rey began attaching the antenna back to him. 

“Classified. Really? Me too. Big secret.” She then gets up on her feet, pointing to the horizon. Niima Outpost is that way, stay off Kelvin Ridge. Keep away from the Sinking Fields in

the north, you’ll drown in the sand.”

She begins to walk away but BB-8 starts off to following, beeping excitedly once more.

Rey turns sharply, holding her quarterstaff. “Don’t follow me. Town is that way.” She points off in the distance again, continuing back to her home. 

BB-8 beeps again, following. 

“No!” She shakes her head, still moving. 

This time, BB-8 tells her that he is alone, scared, and has no one else and that she gave him compassion. This makes her stop and give him another look, Rey didn’t like him but she gestures for him to join her. BB-8 chirped merrily, traveling up. 

“In the morning, you go.” The droid thanked her with a beep and she nods. “You’re welcome.”

Poe, shackled to a chair, beaten, wakes up in the interrogation room of the Star Destroyer to see Kylo Ren standing in front of him. “I had no idea we had the best pilot in the Resistance on board. Comfortable?”

Through battered lips, Poe replies with, “Not really.”

Kylo began stepping up closer to the pilot. “I’m impressed. No one has been able to get out of you what you did with the map.”

Poe grinned, being smug. “Might wanna rethink your technique.”

Kylo says nothing, just reaches out to him and Poe flinches in the chair as Kylo’s hand reaches for his face, not touching him. Soon the man was in agony, remaining in a horrible silence asides from his grunts. Out in the hallway, by the room’s door, Elektra listened in, seeing General Hux wandering up to where she was and studied her for a moment. He was thirty-four, ginger hair slicked out, looking scary with his pale appearance. Elektra backed away from the door, returning his stare and kept quiet. 

“Where is it?” He demanded to know, flexing his fingers which made Poe’s head shoot back against the seat forcibly. “Where _is_ it?”

Straining, Poe says to the best of his ability, “The Resistance will not be intimidated by you.”

Kylo then drew his hand closer to himself, and it brought Poe’s head and face close to him. “Where . . . is it?” He asks more sinisterly. Poe tried to keep it together but it got too hard for him, throwing him into massive pain to the point that he yells. 

From outside, Elektra heard the scream, her eyes going wide and whipping around to face the door. It opened up, seeing her brother strolling out while Poe looked utterly weak in the back, still strapped in the chair. 

“It’s in a droid. A BB unit.” Kylo informs General Hux. 

“Well then, if it’s on Jakku, we’ll have it soon.” 

“I leave that to you.” Kylo walks away and Elektra thought for a second, already having a plan within her head and excused herself to go and enter her room. 

With a sharp left and a right, heading down the one corridor, Elektra headed to where she wanted to be, right outside Phasma division. She waited, keeping her eye out for FN-2187, finally finding him washing his helmet off and she took him by the arm. They roughly had been mutuals for about three years, Elektra and him sharing the same interests and conflicts within their lives. But today was a fresh start, today was the day that Elektra would betray her own flesh and blood to try and join the Resistance with the only other person that she could trust other than Kylo. 

“You want to get out of here, right?” She questioned, putting him on the spot which earned a perplexed response. “I have a plan, and we’re going to need that Resistance pilot but I can’t do it alone. I may be Kylo’s sister but even I must be careful. Are you in?” 

“Hell yeah.” He joins in, agreeing. 

It was morning on Jakku, Rey and BB-8 at the outpost. She drops him in the sand carefully, unloading her Speeder with more pieces of machinery. “Don’t give up. He still might show. Whoever it is you’re waiting for. Classified. I know all about waiting.” She places her bag strap onto her shoulder, gazing down at him as he asked her what she was waiting for. “For my family. They’ll be back. One day.” She tries to force a smile, still trying to keep her hope. “Come on.” 

At the Trading Structure, she hands her items to Unkar Plutt, at his window. He reviews her goods and glances quickly at BB-8. “These five pieces are worth . . . Let me see here . . . One half portion.”

Rey, annoyed, she spoke up. “Last week they were a half portion each.” 

Unkar leaned forwards. “What about the droid?”

Rey glanced down at the rounded guy. “What about him?” 

“I’ll pay for him.” He then went, grabbing two handfuls of thirty bags, displaying them all on the counter for her to see. “Sixty portions.”

Rey’s mouth was agape, stunned and hungry for that amount of food, her stomach already rumbling. She steps forwards, ready to take it all but freezes, glimpsing to BB-8 and he looks up at her. She thinks it through, considering it but finally hears herself say, “Actually . . . the droid’s not for sale.” She presses the sixty portions away and grabs her original one half portion. “Come on,” she says to BB-8, them both leaving. 

Unkar was furious, watching her go with dark eyes and removes the sixty portions and grabbing his communicator. “Follow the girl and get that droid.” He orders before slamming the service window door shut.

FN-2187 enters the interrogation room, seeing another Trooper in there. He stood tall, holding his blaster and spoke, “Ren wants the prisoner.” 

“Which Ren?” The other asks. 

“Does it matter?” 

The Trooper didn’t respond, he unlatched the restrains and FN-2187 grabs Poe who was utterly exhausted, leading him on out and down the corridor with his blaster in his side. They took a detour and once he saw that they were alone, he told Poe to turn into a narrow passageway. 

FN-2187 peeked back out in the hall, focusing on Poe. “Listen carefully, you do exactly as I say, I can get you out of here.”

“Wha . . . What?”

The Stormtrooper pulls off his helmet, revealing his face to Poe and so he could speak clearly to him. “This is a rescue, I’m helping you escape. Can you fly a TIE fighter?”

“You with the Resistance?!” Poe loudly whispered to him.

“What?” He was so confused as to why he’d even think that. “No no no! I’m breaking you out with Elektra’s help. Can you fly a TIE fighter?”

“I can fly anything.” He defends and FN-2187 smiled goofily; Elektra did tell him that he could fly any type of craft but he just thought she was yanking his chain. “Why, why are you helping me?”

“Because it’s the right thing to do.”

Poe nods. “You need a pilot.”

He nods. “I need a pilot.”

Poe, seeing this is for real, smiles a hero’s smile with a nod. “We’re gonna do this.”

FN-2187 was unsure, but kinda hopeful. “Yeah?”

In the hangar, Elektra stood, spinning her blaster pistol on her finger, doing random tricks then feels the arrival of the people she was waiting for. Lifting her head, her eyes land on Poe and FN-2187 masked, appearing to be escorting him as a prisoner. She places her pistol away into her holster, leaning off of the wall and began her stride towards them. 

“Okay, stay calm, stay calm.” FN-2187 mumbled.

“I am calm.” Poe told him.

“I’m talking to myself.”

A group of Officers strolled pass, the two men seeing Elektra and paused before her as she did the same. Poe gazed her over, realizing that she looked very familiar and it dawned on him where he had seen her face before. He had seen it in the Resistance General. He felt the need to kneel but the Trooper was still holding him up, and it would look rather mysterious; gaining attention if he had. 

Elektra watched as the Officers disappeared, her motioning for them to hurry and go. Poe didn’t need to be told twice, he left, running for the TIE fighter but the Trooper faltered, turning to the girl. “What about you? Don’t you want to leave as well?”

“Next time.” 

“What if there isn’t a next time?” Elektra could hear the hurt in his voice; he was afraid that she’d be killed for helping them out. “You can come with us.” 

“There’s not enough room in the TIE fighter, only two people can fit.” 

“El,” FN-2187 softly spoke and it caught her attention within a snap. He gave her a nickname, a pure form of a bond—form of _friendship_. “Please, come with us.” 

“Hey!” Poe popped his head out of the TIE fighter, loudly whispering. “We’re going to run out of time.” 

Elektra nods to him and turns to the Trooper, taking off his helmet and gave his cheek a peck. “Go. I’ll be alright.” She stepped back and sadly, the Trooper turned away and got into the TIE fighter, being back to back with the pilot and stared at the desk in front of him that was covered with buttons and levers. 

Poe removes his cuffs and jacket, allowing him some room to movie and fires up the ship with excitement. “I always wanted to fly one of these things. Can ya shoot?”

“Blasters, I can!”

“Okay, same principal! Use the toggle on the left to switch between missiles, cannons, and mag pulse, use the site on the right to aim, triggers to fire!”

FN-2187 eyes whatever the heck Poe was talking about, nodding and got himself into position. “This is very complicated.”

The fighter lifted, about to fly off but the cable was still stuck to it. The idiots were in such a rush that they had forgotten to disconnect the cord and now, they were caught like a fish in a barrel. 

“I can fix this!” Poe shouts. 

Up in the Hanger Six Control Room, a technician spoke. “We have an unsanctioned departure

from bay two.” He turns, eyeing the First Order Colonel. 

He had his hands behind his back, speaking with authority. “Alert General Hux and stop that

Fighter.” 

Elektra hid, watching as Stormtroopers began come out with their blasters, firing at the TIE fighter that was still stuck on the cable but the fighter began firing back and Elektra found herself smiling and cheering them on.

Inside of the fighter, FN-2187 eyed the control room and thought about how they would be able to review the camera footage and seen that Elektra had helped them out. He frowned, taking aim and shot at it to damage everything inside. 

“I got it.” Poe flicks a switch and run the TIE fighter again, the cable detaching as they flew on out. “This thing really moves.” Poe exclaims in surprise, circling back and underneath the Star Destroyer. “Alright, we gotta take out as many as these cannons as we can or we’re not gonna get very far.” 

“Alright.”

“I’m gonna get us into position!” Poe presses a few more buttons. “Just stay sharp.” He flew overhead so the Trooper was able to see the guns to shoot at. “Up ahead! Up ahead! You see it?

I’ve got us dead centered. It’s a clean shot.” 

FN-2187 set the targets, grabbing a hold of the wheel. “Okay, got it.” He fired six times, three for each turbolaser. “Yeah!” He yells. 

“Yeah!” Poe shouts back to match his excitement.

“Did you see that?! Did you see that?!”

“I saw it!” Poe smiled wide, them traveling away from the Star Destroyer. “Hey, what’s your name?” 

“FN-2187.” 

“F . . . What?” Poe turned back around, quickly glancing to see if he was lying or not. 

“That’s the only name they ever gave me.” 

“Well, I ain’t using it. F-N, huh? Finn. I’m going to call you Finn. Is that alright?” 

“Finn.” He tests the word out, smiling. “Yeah! Finn. I like that!” 

“I’m Poe. Poe Dameron.”

“Good to meet you, Poe.” The Trooper, now Finn, replies. 

“Good to meet you, too, Finn.”

Back at the Star Destroyer, General Hux was in the main bridge, looking over Lieutenant Mitaka’s shoulder while he was at the console. “Sir, they’ve taken out our turbolasers.” 

“Use the ventral cannons.” 

“Yes, sir. Bringing them online.” 

Kylo Ren entered, walking directly to the man. “General Hux, is it the Resistance pilot?” 

“Yes, and he had help from one of our own. We’re checking the registers right now to identify which Stormtrooper it was.” 

Elektra was in the room, over in the corner, eavesdropping in on their conversation by pretending to pay no mind, no attention to anything else other than her pistol. Her heart sank once she heard that they were checking the Stormtroopers, if someone had seen him then that meant that they’ve seen Elektra with him. 

“The one from the village. FN-2187.” 

Elektra turns her head, seeing that her brother was examining her and she gave him a smile. Since they were kids, he used to try and read her mind with the Force like how he did with everyone to learn something about them but Elektra found out that with her, Kylo sometimes had a hard time reading her and it usually happens as she gives him a smile. The reason for it? No idea. But it was her greatest power over him, as long as she smiled, he couldn’t sense that she did help them escape as well. 

Meanwhile, Hux was unnerved that Kylo knew, he chalks it up to be because he was Force sensitive. The one man spoke up to him. “Sir, ventral cannons hot.”

General Hux stepped forwards, eyeing him. “Fire.” 

Massive warhead missiles launch and fire blasts toward the TIE fighter, which flies evasive maneuvers, the blasts hit the debris from the turbolaser destruction. The TIE fighter then pulls a big turn, heading straight for the sandy planet of Jakku. 

“One’s coming towards you. My right, your left. Do you see it?” Poe shouts back to Finn.

“Hold on! I see him!” He fires, getting it and the missile explodes in a bright, blue color. 

“Nice shot.”

Finn looks up suddenly in alarm, realizing that they weren’t leaving. “Where are we going?”

“We’re going back to Jakku. That’s where.”

“No, no! We can’t go back to Jakku!” Finn argues. “We need to get outta this system!”

“I got to get to my droid before the First Order does!”

“What—a droid?!”

“That’s right. He’s a BB unit! Orange and white: one of a kind.”

Finn shakes his head. “I don’t care what color he is! No droid can be that important!”

“This one is, pal.”

“We need to get as far away from the First Order as we can! We go back to Jakku, we die!”

“That droid’s got a map that leads straight to Luke Skywalker!”

That’s when Finn realized the danger. “Oh, you gotta be kidding me!! I—”

 _Bam!_ They’re hit. The TIE fighter sparks and smokes, spiraling out of control towards the surface of Jakku. 

Back on the bridge, Captain Phasma and General Hux stand before a holographic projection detailing FN-2187’s service records. Elektra hid, observing and listening in. “FN-2187 reported to my division, was evaluated and sent to Reconditioning.”

“No prior signs of non-conformity?”

“This was his first offense.”

A technician checks her readings, reports to General Hux. “General. They’ve been hit.”

“Destroyed?” He questions. 

The lady began reading the reports. “Disabled. They were headed back to Jakku, the fighter’s projected to crash in the Goazon badlands.”

“They were going back for the droid, send a squad to the wreckage.”

That was the opening Elektra was looking for, sending a squad to Jakku. She backed away, straight to the bridge, and seen her brother and she gulped as she waited for General Hux to come out and tell the news to Kylo. 

Like clockwork, Hux came out, telling Kylo and began his ramblings while Kylo motioned for Elektra to follow after during their discussion. “Supreme Leader Snoke was explicit. Capture the droid if we can, but destroy it if we must.”

“How capable are your soldiers, General?”

With vitriol, General Hux replies, “I won’t have you question my methods.”

“They’re obviously skilled at committing high treason.” Kylo sasses back and Elektra can’t help but snicker, covering her mouth to try and stifle it. “Perhaps Leader Snoke should consider using a clone army.”

“My men are exceptionally trained,”—he steps in front of Kylo, stopping him and Elektra in their tracks, eyeing the two pair of siblings—“programmed from birth.”

“Then they should have no problem retrieving the droid. Unharmed.” 

“Careful, Ren. That your ‘personal interests’ not interfere with orders from Leader Snoke.” General Hux says in a low, threatening voice. 

Elektra’s eyes darted back and forth between Hux and her brother, already feeling the tension between them as Kylo spoke. “I want that map. For your sake, I suggest you get it. Let Elektra go with your men, so I have someone worth trust there.” 

Elektra smirked, her plan was working out perfectly and she sneered to General Hux who had despised her even more than her brother. “Very well.” He fumed, nostrils flaring up as Kylo continued on pass, shoving his shoulder directly into General Hux’s. 

“Remember, Hux, Snoke chose my brother over you.” Elektra eyed him intently. “Disagreeing with him basically has you losing faith in your Supreme Leader.” 

“You may have everyone fooled, Elektra. But not me. You’re a coward when it comes to hard decisions, the Soft Ren. All grown up and yet, have your brother holding your hand to keep you out of trouble and from doing what needs to be done.”

Elektra covered up her hurt, smiling through it all. “I’m capable of throwing in the glove when it needs to be.” 

“Is that so?” He grimaced at her. “Then when we find FN-2187, and we will, you’ll have the honor of killing him.”


	2. Millennium Falcon

A gasp escapes through the air as Finn awakens terrified, unbuckling himself from his seat that he projected out at the last second. He stands, seeing him standing in a desert land with dunes upon dunes and sees sight of black smoke in the distance that came from the TIE fighter. Sprinting in the sand, his feet getting stuck so often, he makes it and yells for his new friend. 

“Poe! Poe!” Finn scrambles through the flames, seeing what he believed was Poe’s arm and grabbed it, pulling. Out came his pilot jacket, Finn eyeing it over before trying to find a way in—even a way to look inside, but the smoke and heat make it impossible. 

The ship begins sinking, the ground consuming it and Finn almost slips in but backs away, still shouting for his friend. The TIE fighter had landed in the Sinking Fields, and within a few seconds, it was gone; covered in the earth. Disoriented, scared, exhausted and defeated, Finn slowly turned away from where the fighter had sunk, eyeing Poe’s jacket then _BOOM!_ He jolts as an explosion erupts from down below, sending sand and debris everywhere. Gone. All gone, and he was all alone. 

Finn began traveling far, crossing many dunes and tearing off his Stormtrooper outfit from the blazing heat that beamed down from the sun. He held up Poe’s jacket above his head, using it to cover his face for some shade, continuing on his trek across the endless, sandy nothingness of Jakku. 

Parched, and losing hope, Finn walks up on the end of a dune and gazes across the valley that resided down below. There, he catches sight of the Niima Outpost that was miles ahead. He throws on Poe’s jacket, dawning it and started his journey down; Finn is sun-scorched, weary, but it doesn’t stop him from charging through the valley with an impeccable desire to find a source of water. 

“Water . . . Water . . .” He passes merchants, scavengers, traders, and the tented stalls, asking for them to spare any. “Is there any water?” Finn goes to touch what he believed was a barrel but a merchant exclaims to him in his alien dialect to go away and rushes off. 

He pauses for a moment, panting until he hears water splashing about over his shoulders. Finn twists around, spotting a water trough where a filthy, slobbering hippo-like creature—called a Hippabore—drinks. Finn sprints, using his hands to desperately scoop up the filthy water and slurps it. After a couple of swallows he sputters, disgusted, but his thirst is no match for the grossness. He continues drinking more but gets pushed by the Hippabore, falling off on his side and overhears a commotion. 

Across from him, in the marketplace, Rey was being held by Unkar’s thugs, thrashing about and knocks over a metal urns for sale. BB-8 had a sack thrown over him, him nervously beeping as Rey bit down on the one man’s arm and as he released her, she whacked him with her quarterstaff. The other thug backhands Rey, her head being thrown off to the left which prompt Finn up onto his feet and he starts forwards, shouting for the attackers to stop. Rey took her quarterstaff, tilting it off to the side to hit the one man in the knee then raised it to whack him straight in the face. The other grabs her from behind again as the one she hit gets up, she kicks him backwards into the sand, hard and overturns the one that had her in his grasp. She lifts up her quarterstaff, smacking his jaw and head upwards before smacking him twice with the end which made him get knocked out. 

Finn halted, seeing how the girl fought feral and scrappy; he was stunned. He knew that girls could fight, he watched Elektra train the Stormtroopers and even trained him in a few hand-to-hand combat moves if it ever became necessary to fend off an attacker if he had no weapon, but Elektra’s moves were always calculated like she knew what to expect, whereas this girl went all for it. 

BB-8 chirps, Rey paying attention to him and pulls the sack off. “They for Unkar. That guy wanted you. He must have really wanted you.” Finn squints, seeing the round droid and wanders up to get a better look. With doing so, BB-8 sees him, his beeps loud and Rey faces Finn. “Who? Him?” 

Finn glances around, seeing if they were talking about someone else but no one else was around; only him. His eyes linger back, seeing Rey stand and she was charging at him with quarterstaff in hand. Finally, he realizes that he’s the target and begins running away from her. Weaving through the marketplace, he tries to lose her, him glancing back every once in a while to make sure she’s behind. He turns a corner and _WHACK_ , he’s hit by her staff and thrown onto his back, the air getting knocked from his lungs. She had outbest him. 

Holding the staff on him threateningly, she says, “What’s your hurry, thief?” 

“What? Thief?” BB-8 rolls on up, a welding arm telescopes out from his body and he shocks Finn with a pulse. “Ow! Hey, what?” 

“The jacket.” Rey starts to explain. “Ths droid said you stole it.”

Finn stares at the droid, then to her. “I’ve had a pretty messed up day, alright?! So I’d appreciate it if you stop accusing me— _OW!!_ ” He shouts as BB-8 shocks him again. “Stop it!”

“Where’d you get it? It belongs to his master.” Rey remarks.

Finn looks at her then the agitated droid, his mind racing as he quickly puts it all together like a puzzle. Frustrated, but sighing heavily, he needed to respond somehow. So he makes the hard decision to tell the truth of what happened. 

“It belonged to Poe Dameron. That was his name, right?” He looks to the droid who exchanges a look with Rey. “He was captured by the First Order. My friend and I, we helped him escape. Our ship crashed . . . Poe didn’t make it.” BB-8’s head falls, him moaning in sadness. “Look, I tried to help him. I’m sorry.” 

BB-8 rolls away sadly, Rey watching him leave and lowered her staff from Finn before gandering and examines him over. “So, you’re with the Resistance?” 

Finn pauses, seeing her face as his mind races. He lies. “Obviously.” Quickly, he stands, wiping himself off to get rid of the sand. “Yes, I am. I’m with the Resistance, yeah.” He then moves in close to her, whispering, “I’m with the Resistance.” 

Rey found herself happily smiling. “I’ve never met a Resistance fighter before.”

“Well, this is what we look like.” He pauses. “Some of us. Others look different.” 

She turns, facing the droid. “BB-8 says he’s on a secret mission. He has to get back to your base.”

Annoyed, Finn replies with, “Apparently, he has a map that leads to Luke Skywalker and everyone’s after it.” 

At the mention of Skywalker, Rey focuses on him, her eyes filled with childlike wonder and curiosity. “Luke Skywalker?” She softly utters. “I thought he was a myth.” BB-8 then chirps. “What?” Rey and Finn follow him out, seeing two Stormtroopers speaking with a merchant. Finn instantly takes her hand into his. “What are you doing?” She asked confused, Finn already leading her towards the tents. 

“Come on.” He jets forwards, bringing Rey with him as the Troopers began shooting their blasters. “Come on, BB-8!”

A blaster hits the cleaning unit, spewing steam as the three race; zigzagging through the maze of tents. 

“Let go of my hand!” Rey shouts to him. 

“Come on, we gotta move!”

“I know how to run without you holding my hand!” She tears her hand away from his, heading up in front and taking lead. “BB-8, stay close! This way.” They run to a new tent, disappearing through as a blast just missed them. 

The Troopers roamed around, shoving people out of their way and not finding them. The ordered, “Call in the air strike! And bring Ren down here.” 

In a tent, resting, Rey takes deep breaths. “They’re shooting at the both of us!” 

Finn was rummaging through bins and boxes, trying to find something of use to fight back. “Yeah. They saw you with me. You’re marked.” 

Her head rotates ever so slowly. “Well, _thanks_ for that.” 

“Hey!” Finn looks to her. “I’m not the one that chased you down with a stick.” He goes back to searching. “Does anyone have blasters around here?!” 

Rey ignores him, kneeling down to BB-8. “Are you okay?” He chirps back a response but Finn shushes them, moving down to them and listens in to hear engines roaring. He grabs Rey’s hand once more. “Stop taking my hand!”

Finn leads her out of the tent, BB-8 following, sprinting against the scream of incoming TIE fighters. One fires a blast at the tent that they were previously in, sending the droid rolling and Finn and Rey flying. Rey is thrown hard to the ground, her lifting her head to see the two TIE fighters firing at the town which sprays sand and debris all over the place. For once she’s rattled at what she was seeing but through the clouded dust, she sees a silhouette approaching her in a steady pace. Rey assumes the worst, turning to see Finn lying nearby, unconscious. 

Suddenly afraid, she scrambles to him, shaking him. “Hey.” 

He grunts, lifting up the upper half of his body as BB-8 travels over. Through his personal fog, he asks Rey, “Are you okay?” 

That question made her forget about the person that she seen—she had never been asked before and it struck a cord within her, making her somewhat emotional. She nods tenderly. “Yeah.” 

From the corner of Finn’s eye, he gazes up to see the face of Elektra staring down at him and Rey, wearing her traditional black makeup that was smeared around her eyes; giving her a raccoonlike appearance. His heart filled with relief, seeing that his friend was there and alive. 

“El.” He gets up, giving her a hug and Elektra hugs him back while Rey and BB-8 stood off to the side. 

“I knew you’d make it.” Elektra rests her chin on his shoulder, her fingers sprawled across his shoulder blade before letting him go. “Where’s the pilot?” 

“Didn’t make it.” He sadly frowned. 

An explosion goes off nearby, shaking the ground and Elektra turns, peering around to see where the Stormtroopers were as well as the TIE fighters. 

“Anyone have an idea of how to get out of here?” 

Rey was quick to think. “Follow me.” She takes off, BB-8, Finn, and Elektra go in pursuit.

Locals ran around, trying to find cover anywhere from the TIE fighters dive while the group of four ran towards the spaceport, explosions getting closer and closer towards them.

Finn glances back, seeing them looming over. “We can’t outrun them!”

Rey points ahead at a four engine ship. “We might in that quad-jumper!”

“Hey, we need a pilot!”

“We’ve got one!”

“You?!” Finn asked, eyeing the girl, his speed increasing as he ran up to get near her while Elektra was in the back of the three. She peered off to the right, seeing a ship that she had only ever heard stories about and slowed down to a jog. Boots in sand, Elektra eyed the ship and took in the glory of it. 

“What about this one?!” She points to it. 

Rey whips her head back, seeing the girl not running but rather invested in the junk looking carcass of machinery. “That one’s garbage!” A TIE fighter flies overhead, blasting the jumper to firey bits. Rey comes to a quick stop, eyeing the wreckage. “The garbage’ll do!” Elektra took off first, Finn, Rey, and BB-8 going straight towards the one and only Millennium Falcon. 

An explosion hits the ground right next to Elektra, her flying off and hitting the ground with a thud. She gasps, coughing on dirt and felt lightheaded. Rey went directly to her, seeing if she was alright and Elektra nods. Finn joined Rey’s side next to Elektra, telling Rey to get the ship ready for take off and scooped Elektra up in his arms, taking her on board as BB-8 chirped. 

Inside the Millennium Falcon, Finn rested Elektra down on her feet in the cylindrical corridor and he checks her closely, seeing that she must’ve gotten hit by something since the side of her head was bleeding. But he knew that this was no time to be concerned with her head, he had to be concerned with their lives. 

“Gunner position is down there.” Elektra points towards the ladder and he nods, starting to climb down.

He shouts to Rey. “You ever fly this thing?”

She runs up, sitting in the pilot’s seat and throws her quarterstaff off to the side. “No! This ship hasn’t flown in years!” Rey presses a button, shutting the cargo door.

Elektra touches her temple, peering down to her fingers to see the red crimson color of blood before shifting her eyes to BB-8, her heart growing heavy at the knowledge that the droid held the map to Luke Skywalker; something her brother desperately wanted—something she wanted as well but for a different reason, unlike her other half. 

Down below, Finn sits in the gunner seat, buckling himself in and to his shock, the seat swishes him off to the left which startles him. He grabs the controls, steadying himself. “Great.” He muttered, trying to work the gun. “I can do this. I can do this.” 

In cockpit, Rey buckles herself as well, flicking on switches and repeats the same to herself. “I can do this. I can do this.” Her words fail her, filled with lies and it makes her more anxious as her eyes darted at all the controls. 

“ _We_ got this.”

Rey watches as Elektra joined her in the copilot seat,pulling the yoke and turning on the thrusters without buckling herself in. She keeps her eyes trained on Elektra, seeing her temple bleeding and Rey finds herself asking the girl if she was alright. Elektra turned, her blue-green eyes landing on her brown ones and her lips curve into a smile that was wickedly; lively and filled with confidence. It had brought a surge of belief into Rey, giving her the self-assurance that she could fly this ship. 

Elektra didn’t need to respond, Rey knew that she more than alright. She was ready for an adventure, to be free— _free of what, exactly?_ Rey wasn’t sure. But one thing she did know was that this girl was willing to help her and to protect her without even knowing who she was. That gave her comfort. 

The Falcon raises, the tarp that was covering it flies off, revealing the ship in its glory as it spins and tilts. It bumps against the ground, causing everyone in the inside to yelp and grunt. The ship tries to pick up again into the sky, slamming into and crumbles the town’s archway before it blasts away, the TIE fighters flying after. 

“Stay low! Stay low!” Finn shouts, placing on a headrest that connects to the cockpit for Rey and Elektra to hear him. 

“What?” 

“Confuses their tracking.” Elektra informs her, making a few adjustments. “We should stay low.” 

Rey nods, shooting a look back at the orange and white droid. “BB-8, hold on!” He chirps in response. “We’re going low!” She grabs for the switches, Elektra resting her hand on the yolk to stabilize it as they go into an upward arc then dive, going perilously low across the sand just as the two TIE fighters blast pass.

Rey peers back for a flash as the TIE fighters, surprised that they just dodged a bullet but the moment is short lived when they’re rocked by a blast. She shouts to Finn. “What are you doing back there? Are you ever gonna fire back?!”

“I’m working on it! Are the shields up?” 

Elektra glanced over, flipping the switch which granted Finn with control of the gun and he locked in on target, firing back. All the shots missed, the TIE fighters gaining speed, shooting their lasers and they got blasted once again. 

“We need cover! Quick!”

“We’re about to get some!” Rey hollers, then mumbled to herself, “I hope.”

The Falcon speeds through a rock formation, grazing the rock, taking out a chuck with it as the two TIE fighters were still in pursuit. The ship banks rough, the edge of it ripping a line in the sand as it returns, Elektra and Rey seeing the ship graveyard that was ahead. In the corridor, BB-8 extends magnetic cables to brace himself as Rey and Elektra coursed the ship through the maze of old Star Destroyers. 

Finn continues on firing, missing them narrowly. “Damn it!” He shouts, them being hit again. “Come on, come on.” He waits, the sights finding target and he fires three times, clipping the fighter and it spirals out, crashing. 

“Nice shot!” Rey shouts back to him. 

“I’m getting pretty good at this.” 

The Falcon, pursued by the last TIE fighter, slaloms through the massive wreckage, grazing the old ships. The TIE fires, hitting the Falcon’s lower turret, spinning and jamming it which caused the alarms to sound. Finn tried to knock it loose but it was no use. 

“Uh, the cannon’s stuck in forward position, I can’t move it! You gotta lose ‘em!” 

Rey looks to Elektra afraid, noticing that she was trying to figure out something as her eyebrows furrowed together. Suddenly, they loosen and that told her that the girl had a plan. 

“Get ready!” 

“Okay!” Finn then got confused. “For what?” Elektra excused herself as she began piloting in front of Rey, turning the ship upwards and into the rear of a crashed Star Destroyer as the TIE fighter followed. He glances out of the window, seeing where they were. “Are we really doing this?!”

The fighter spits lasers from behind, Elektra weaving through and dodging them while the two ships slalom debris inside the giant ship. The Falcon grazes one side, then the other, spitting sparks. Rey sees how they’re running out of space in the wreck, her growing worried and glanced back to see that Elektra was still content—still so sure of her movements. She knew _exactly_ what she was doing. 

The TIE fighter gets a lock on the Falcon, just about to shoot but Elektra jerks the ship to make a hard right turn out of the Destroyer and cuts the power, making the ship flip so the back faces the front. 

“Now!” Her voice echoes as Finn seen the pursuing fighter, getting locked on and fired which blew the ship. Elektra cut the power back on, throwing the lever upwards, them traveling up into space and away from Jakku as Finn gave a _Whoo!_ The Falcon flies in victory, engine roaring.

BB-8 disconnects himself, Rey unbuckling herself to run and meet up with Finn while Elektra still flew the ship to somewhere safe. Finn was adrenalized, climbing from the turret, meeting Rey in the corridor. 

“Nice shooting!” Rey starts first.

“Now that was some flying!”

“Thanks! It was mostly her but—” 

“How’d you do that?!”

“I don’t—I don’t know! I’ve flown some ships before but I’ve never left the planet! Your last shot was dead on! You got him with one blast!” 

“She set me up for it!” Finn happily responds. 

Rey laughs. “It was perfect!”

“That was pretty good.” He remarks, a tad cocky. 

BB-8 chirps, Rey turning and kneeling down in front of the nervous droid. “You’re okay. He’s with the Resistance. He’s going to get you home. Him, Her, and I will.” She stands, facing the boy. “I don’t even know your name.” 

He thinks it through, using the name that Poe gave him. “Finn. What’s yours?”

“I’m Rey. And what’s hers?” She looks towards the cockpit. “I heard you calling her El.” 

Finn nods. “Her name’s Elektra but, I call her El.” 

“Elektra.” Rey says the name, it leaving a tingling feeling on the tip of her tongue. As on cue, Elektra had put the ship on autopilot, heading in the corridor to meet her friend and the scavenger. She looks at her, studying her for a moment and decides to introduce herself. “I’m Rey. It’s nice to meet you.” 

Elektra nods to her, gently smiling. “Nice to meet you, I’m Elektra.” 

“So are you in the Resistance with Finn?” 

Elektra shifted her stare to Finn, tilting her head and he avoided her gaze. He lied to this girl, telling her that he was part of the Resistance instead of the First Order but she couldn’t blame him, Rey seemed kind and honorable, and there’s no doubt that she hasn’t heard of the First Order being ruthless. Good didn’t belong to the First Order, and good was all that Finn and Elektra was. 

Finn lifts his head, “Rey . . .”

Steam bursts through the grating and Elektra felt herself get overwhelmed. “Woah, hey! No, no!” She rushes over, begging for Rey and Finn’s help. 

The Star Destroyer hovered over Jakku, Lieutenant Mitaka moves to Kylo, who looks out across the star field. Mitaka swallows, uneasy with his task and removes his hat as he stood behind the boy. Sir. 

“We were unable to acquire the droid on Jakku.” Kylo turns to look at him, he says nothing but rather listens in as he continued. “It escaped capture aboard a stolen Corellian YT model freighter.”

“The droid . . . stole a freighter?” Kylo inquires. 

“Not exactly, sir. It had help.” This time, Kylo turns, facing Mitaka as he begins to sweat. “We have no confirmation, but we believe FN-2187 may have been helped in the escape—”

Kylo ignites his lightsaber, Mitaka closing his eyes and looks away, ready to be struck but instead, Kylo slashes at the console behind him. Mitaka just stayed silent, wincing at the sound of Kylo’s rage as sparks flew all over. The metallic wall was now ripped with glowing scars as the boy’s shoulders rose and fell in a rigid motion, his lightsaber deactivating. 

“Anything else?”

Mitaka hates to say the following, slowly and surely, he does. “The two were accompanied by a girl and Elektra.”

Kylo thrashes around, throwing out his hand and Mitaka is suddenly and violently pulled towards him, throat falling place into his black glove as he chokes him. “What do you mean, ‘a girl _and_ Elektra’?”

Instruments beep rapidly, Rey popping her head up from the grating as steam carried through the air. Elektra is right next to her, seeing what the problem was. It was the motivator. She stands, seeing Finn. “She’s going to need a Harris wench, check in there.” She points to a storage box.

He begins crawling over. “How bad is it?” 

This time, Rey responds in an overwhelmed voice. “If we want to live, not good!”

“They’re hunting for us now. We’ve gotta get out the system!” He searches through a selection of tools. 

Rey emerges next to Elektra, eyeing the boy. “BB-8 said the location of the Resistance base is ‘need to know’. If I’m taking you and Elektra back, I need to know!”

“This?” Finn finds what she was needing, tossing it to her and Rey grabs it in midair, going back under. Elektra then watches as he shuffles on his knees towards BB-8, quietly talking so Rey wouldn’t be able to hear. “You gotta tell us where your base is.”

BB-8 chirps. 

“I don’t speak that.” He then darts his gaze to Elektra. “Do you?” 

“He asked, ‘why’.” Elektra informs him and Finn was flabbergasted by his friend once again, her shrugging her shoulders. “What? I learned Binary from my uncle.” 

Finn shrugs it off, eyeing the droid. “Okay, look. Between us, Elektra and I aren’t part of the Resistance. We’re just trying to get away from the First Order but you tell us where your base is, we’ll get you there first. Deal?!”

BB-8 cocks his head. 

“Droid, please.” 

Rey extends up again. “Pilex driver, hurry!” Finn moves for the tool, heading back to the box. “So where’s your base?”

“Go on, BB-8, tell her.” Finn eyes him and BB-8 gazes back forth between him, Elektra, and Rey before going back to eyeing Finn. “Please!” He begs in a whisper. 

The droid goes back to Rey and Elektra, seeing Elektra giving her warm smile and he considers it, beeping. 

“The Ileenium system?” She asks in disbelief. 

Finn hands her the tool, surprised but thrilled that BB-8 didn’t give up on him and Elektra. “Yeah, the Ileenium system, that’s the one.” Rey disappears below again, Finn then gives a thumbs up to BB-8 with a smile. “Get us there as fast as you can.” BB-8 gives him one back by extending his welding torch and turns it upwards. 

“I’ll drop the three of you at Ponemah Terminal.” She then pops up again, Elektra slipping herself out of the grating to give Rey room to properly work on the motivator. “I need the bonding tape, hurry!”

Finn searches, looking over his shoulder at her. “What about you?”

“I gotta get back to Jakku.” She says in a tone that said, ‘what kind of question was that’? 

Finn began losing his mind. “BACK TO JAK—?!” He quiets down, pointing a roll of tape at her. “Why does everyone always wanna go back to Jakku?!”

Rey sees the tape, shaking her head. “No, that one!” She points and Finn goes for the wrong one. “No.” He picks up another, showing her it. “No. The one I’m pointing to.” He continues on. “No. No! No! If we don’t patch it up, the propulsion tank will overflow and flood the ship with poisonous gas!”

BB-8 rolls over, motioning to the yellow roll of tape and Finn picks it up, showing her. “This?”

“Yes.” 

He tosses it, her catching it and going back under. “Hey. Rey. You’re a pilot—you can fly anywhere.” Finn tells her, leaning over the opening in the grating to see her working. “Why go back? You got a family?” He then wonders. “You got a boyfriend—cute boyfriend?” 

Rey comes back up, eyeing him. “None of your business, that’s why.”

The power in the ship turns off, plunging them in the dark with red emergency lights turning on and casting them in its glow. Elektra peers around, seeing that BB-8 was nervous; same with Finn. 

“That can’t be good.” 

“No, it can’t be.” She tries to get out but has difficulty until Elektra stands, holding out her hand to the girl and she takes it without a second thought. 

The three of them head to the cockpit, Rey sitting in the pilot’s seat and tried to flip switches but nothing worked. She just stared at the dead instrumentation panel in slight panic while Finn just was confused, not understanding what was happening. 

“The controls are overridden.” Elektra announces. “Someone’s locked onto us.” 

From above, there was a dull clank and the three peered up, wondering what it was. Finn gets up in the seat, placing his hand on Rey’s head and she tells him to get off of her, shoving his arm off. He gazed out, seeing a huge ship lingering above them with red lights. The Millennium Falcon was a powerless, sitting duck as a massive Freighter’s giant hangar opens like the mouth of a whale, enclosing and swallowing the Falcon. 

Finn plops back down in the chair. “It’s the First Order.” 

“What do we do?” Rey mumbles. “There must be something.” 

With a racing mind, he thinks of something. “You said poisonous gas?”

“I fixed that.” 

“Can you unfix it?” 

She stares at him, understanding what he meant and began running away with Finn; the two of them grabbing masks and BB-8 following as they moved the grate, jumping down in. They shout for Elektra to come along but she just stood in the cockpit, knowing that something was off; they weren’t in danger, she knew that for a fact but she did feel something that had an emotional pull on her. She just didn’t know what—what she did know, however, is that she didn’t need to hide. 

Rey moves the grate over the top of her, Finn, and BB-8, realizing that Elektra wasn’t going to store herself away and placed on her mask to try and damage the motivator again. “You think this’ll work on the Stormtroopers?”

“Yeah. Their masks filter out smoke, not toxins.”

The ship comes on life, lights turning on and Finn lifts the lifts the grating, peering at the door to hear the ramp lowering. He tells Rey to hurry and tries to call out for Elektra again but she doesn’t budge, he has no other choice; he ducks own and puts on his own mask. 

The Falcon door opens, Han Solo and Chewbacca boarding with their weapons at the ready. They step in, waiting for an ambush or something of the nature, once nothing happens, Han lowers his blaster. 

“Chewie, we’re home.” 

Chewie growls, Han placing up his hand to silent him in case anyone was hiding. The two begin searching the ship, Chewie going off in one direction while Han went in the other. 

Han began flicking on switches while Chewie inspected, hearing an object clatter from down below. They exchange looks, eyeing the grating and Han readies his weapon, nodding to Chewie who lifts it up and Han pointed his blaster at Rey and Finn who had on their masks. 

“Where are the others?” Han asks. “Where’s the pilot?” 

“I’m the pilot.” Rey admits.

“You?” 

Chewie growls and Rey eyes him. “No, it’s true. We’re the only ones on board . . . And, our other friend.” She tells, not wanting to lie. 

“You can understand that thing?” Finn utters. 

“And ‘that thing’ can understand you, too. So watch it. Come on out of there.” Han orders, Chewie moan talks. Out they came, Han studying them. “Where’d you get this ship?”

“Niima Outpost.” Rey replies.

“Jakku? That junkyard?” 

“Thank you!” Finn says, relieved that someone else had the same thought about the planet. He turns to Rey. “Junkyard.” 

Han then speaks to Chewie. “Told ya we should’ve double-checked the Western Reaches!” Back to Rey, he goes. “Who had it, Ducain?”

“I stole it from Unkar Plutt. He stole it from the Irving Boys, who stole it from Ducain.”

“Who stole it from me!” He exclaims. “Well, you tell him Han Solo just stole back the Millennium Falcon for good.” Han walks away, taking in the sight of the ship; it was his once again and it brought a smile onto his face as he started towards the cockpit. 

Rey was in complete awe. “This is the Millennium Falcon? You’re Han Solo?”

Han turns to look at her before continuing on. “I used to be.” 

Finn thinks it through. “Han Solo, the rebellion general?” 

Rey shook her head at him. “No, the smuggler!”

Furrowing his brows, Finn looks to Chewie. “Wasn’t he a war hero?” 

Chewie replied in his Shyriiwook, saying, “Yeah, I guess, kinda . . .”

“This is the ship that made the Kessel Run in fourteen parsecs!” 

Han overhears Rey shout. “Twelve!” He corrects her, entering the cockpit and his feet came to a stop, seeing a girl standing there and looking to him. Even with her makeup that acts like a mask, he instantly knew who she was. “Bre . . .”

Elektra felt her heart flutter at the sound of her birth name; she had been Elektra for so long that the name Bre felt foreign and unnatural but just hearing Han say it, it was like being home. 

“Dad.” She utters, feeling tears coming to her eyes and she presses off her right foot; running into him and gives him a hug. 

Han hugs her back tight, grateful that he was able to hold his little girl in his arms again. He thinks to himself that he hadn’t changed, all she did was grow taller. She was still kind, strong, grounded; just like her mother. 

From the lounge, Chewie sees Han returning with Elektra and he cheers in a growl, heading over to her and giving her a hug which makes her laugh. Rey glances back and forth between Elektra, Chewie, and Han; the three of them seeming like a family and from how Chewie spoke, she put two and two together. 

“Elektra is your daughter?”

Finn’s eyes went wide as BB-8 chirps excitedly. “Wait, what?!” He eyes Elektra. “You didn’t tell me that your father was Han Solo?” 

Elektra shakes her head. “No . . . Mostly because of . . .” She lets her voice trail off and Finn immediately gets it. 

“Chewie,” Han begins, “Throw ‘em in a pod, we’ll drop them at the nearest inhabited planet.” 

“Wait!” Rey shakes her head. “We need your help.”

“My help?” 

She points to BB-8 and Han kept on walking away. “This droid has to get to the Resistance base as soon as possible!”

“He’s carrying a map to Luke Skywalker.” Finn mentions and Han stops in his tracks, the news hitting him. “You are Han Solo that fought with the Rebellion.” Han turns, facing them. “You knew him.”

“Yeah, I knew him. I knew Luke.” He then eyes Elektra who was on the other side of Rey, seeing her saddened expression. “Oh, Bre . . .” 

Rey and Finn focus on her as she blinked her eyes repeatedly, trying not to tear up. “You knew Luke, too?” Rey gingerly questions. 

“He’s my uncle.” She spoke tinderly, finding her eyes. “It’s why BB-8 is important to me. Why he doesn’t need to be captured by the First Order, because the person who wants it, wants to harm him. And if I let that happen, it’s just going to be a never ending loop of me making wrong decisions.” 

In the distant, a metallic ka-chunk sounds and Han sighs. “Don’t tell me a Rathtar gotten loose.” He starts running out, Rey, Finn, and Elektra following with Chewie and BB-8.

“A what?” Finn hollars with concern as they exit the Falcon, seeing them in the hangar and Han moving to the control panel. “You’re not hauling Rathtars on this freighter, are you?”

“I’m hauling Rathtars.” He confirms, seeing the screens that displayed live feed images of the ship’s interior and exterior. “Oh great. It’s the Guavian Death Gang,” he motions to the one camera to see a ship approaching, “they must’ve tracked us from Nantoon.”

Han heads off, Rey looking to Finn. “What’s a Rathtar?” 

The six of them all strode down the long and narrow corridor that was lined with cargo containers, Han telling her that Rathtar’s are big and dangerous. Finn then asked her if she ever heard of the Trillia Massacre, she said no as they turned a corner. 

“I got three of them going to King Prana.” 

“Three?” Finn was bewildered. “How’d you get them on board?” 

“I used to have a bigger crew.” Han says bluntly which makes Chewie groan talk and BB-8 chirp. 

With a hatch in the floor, Chewie opens it up. Elektra glances down in it before eyeing her father. “You want us to go down in there?” 

He nods. “And stay until I say so.” Han then directs his attention to Rey. “And don’t even think about taking the Falcon.” 

She points to the droid. “What about BB-8?”

“He stays with me until I get rid of the gang then you can have him back and be on your way.” 

“What about the Rathtars?” Finn quizzes him. “Where are you keeping them?” 

From behind Finn, Rey, and Elektra, there was a terrifying _BAM!_ Rey and Finn both yelp, turning to see a grotesque Rathtar and how it had slammed his eye against the cargo container window. 

“There’s one.” Han comments. 

Elektra was unphased, eyeing her dad. “What are you going to do?”

“Same thing I always do. Talk my way out of it.” Chewie moan talks, Han pointing a finger at him. “Yes, I do. Everytime.”

Finn gets down, then Rey, Elektra being the last and wishes her father good luck before going down in. Han shuts the hatch behind her, heading down the corridor and waits as the portal to the corridor opens. 

The Guavian Death gang enters, the one man up in front was named Bala-Tik and he had his five security soldiers dressed in red uniforms with round-face helmets. Han, Chewie, and BB-8 turn into the corridor and stop at the end, both groups at a stand still; forty feet away in the middle of the long hall.

“Han Solo.” Bala-Tik remarks. “You are a dead man.”

Han smiles innocently, putting on a friendly appearance while BB-8 nervously looks back and forth at the gang, and Han. “Bala-Tik. What’s the problem?”

“The problem is we loaned you fifty thousand for this job.” 

Down below the grating, Elektra, Finn, and Rey were listening in, trying to see if they could catch sight of the Guavian Death gang. When they can’t see, they begin moving in the crawlspace to get a look. 

“I heard you also borrowed fifty thousand from Kanjiklub.”

“You know you can’t trust those little freaks! How long’ve we known each other?” Han interjects. 

Finn, Rey, and Elektra all stop under the gang, seeing that they had a ton of blasters on them as Bala-Tik continued. “The question is how much longer will we know each other? Not long. We want our money back now.”

“Ya think hunting Rathtars is cheap? I spent that money.”

“Kanjiklub wants their investment back, too.”

“I never made a deal with Kanjiklub!”

“Tell that to Kanjiklub.” 

Elektra slowly turned her head down in the opposite direction, getting a bad feeling and she was right to because the portal door opened behind Han, Chewie, and BB-8, revealing Kanjiklub. 

Hans sees him, trying to play it off. “Tasu Leech. Good to see you.” 

Through his alien dialect, which Elektra understood, she translated it out to him saying; “Wrong again, Solo. It’s over for you.”

“We need to do something.” Elektra looks back at Finn and Rey. “They’re going to hurt him, I know it.” 

“Boys. You’re both gonna get what I promised!” Han says above while the three moved back to the other end of the crawlspace. “Have I ever not delivered for you before?”

“Yeah.” Bala-Tik nods. 

Tasu then counteracts with, “Twice!” 

Han thinks it through, Chewie nodding in conformation and Han realized that he was right but still plays it off as if he didn’t know. “What was the second time?”

“Your game is old.” Bala-Tik tells him. “There’s no one in the galaxy left for you to swindle.”

“Nowhere left for you to hide.” Tasu adds. 

Bala-Tik then catches sight of BB-8 for the first time. “That BB unit . . . the First Order is looking for one just like it.” The droid rolls behind Han’s legs, peeking from behind. “And two fugitives who took the Supreme Leader’s sister.” 

Finn and Rey both stopped, tense and Rey shoots her stare to Elektra. “ _You?_ ” She says in disbelief. “You’re the sister of the First Order’s Supreme Leader? And your father’s Han Solo, and you’re the niece of Luke Skywalker.” 

Elektra nods with a sigh. “Should hear about my grandfather and my mother.” She retorts.

“Oh, _what?_ ” Finn bickers in a loud whisper, “Was Darth Maul your grandfather?” 

“Close. Darth Vader.” 

Finn studied, his eyes growing in size once she realized that she wasn’t lying. “What?!” His voice carried out, the gangs and Han hearing him from below, knowing his daughter and her two friends were in real trouble now. 

“Search the freighter.” A Kanjiklubber named Razoo Qin-Fee says to another and he began searching with a flashlight. 

Rey found the Junction Box Area, pointing to the fuses. “If we close the blast doors in that corridor, we can trap both gangs!”

“Close the blast doors from here?” Finn mumbles. 

Rey nods, moving to the box. “Resetting the fuses should do it.” She began pressing them, all the lights turning red and Finn helps her out while Elektra stayed crouching behind the two. 

Once finished resetting the fuse boxes, Rey smiles optimistically and Finn looks hopeful too. Above, the noise of Rathtars growl and the lights on the ship dim to red as well. The gangs glance around and Han takes a deep exhale. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” 

“Guys,” Elektra listened in, hearing the faint noises of the monsters. “I think you hit the wrong fuses.” 

“Kill them!” Bala-Tik shouts, the Guavian Death gang readying their blasters. “And take the droid!” An enormous, fierce and ravenous, land octopus—a Rathtar—emerges from behind them and grabs two men with its tentacles. They start shouting and running away while some fired at the monster. 

Han and Chewie flinches back, then turn to Kanjiklub as another Rathtar appeared behind the, roaring deafeningly. The gang spots the creature, some fleeing the space and others stayed to fight. Tasu Leech was heading through the ship, seeing another Kanjiklub member down the corridor who gets violently grabbed by a tentacle. Tasu tries to help him, but he gets pulled up and away and he hears a distant terror-scream of a Rathtar which makes him run the other way.

Other Kanjiklub members yell at him to avoid that direction as they try to hide but end up getting grabbed by a Rathtar themselves, Tasu fires at the beast and continues on.

Han, Chewie and BB-8 go and race down a hall as one of the Rathtars began chasing them down, Han seeing a member of the Kanjiklub gang coming around the corner and he punches him with one blow; grabbing him and spinning him into the Rathtar to buy them some time to escape. 

Rey lifts a hatch up from the floor, peeking around and gets out, Finn was next and he helps Elektra out. They hear the monster in the distance, scrambling through the corridors. 

“What do they look like?” Rey questions. 

They head down the left tunnel, stopping once they see a Rathtar eating a man and Rey covers her mouth in shock. “They look like that.” Finn comments, jetting backwards and Elektra grabs Rey’s left hand to take her with them as they tried to find another way out. 

The three run, Elektra and Rey getting ahead of Finn as a Rathtar catches sight of them, grabbing and tangling its tentacle around Finn’s ankle which makes him trip and land on his stomach. Elektra whips her head around, seeing her friend being ensnared. “Finn!” He yelps, being lifted up in the air and taken away. She and Rey race after. “Finn!” 

The creature disappears around the corner, Elektra and Rey heading out to see that they were in a fork and the two of them kept glancing down every hallway, hearing faint growls. “Elektra! Rey!” They hear him call. 

Side by side, they run straight, making it to another fork. This time, Rey shouts for him as they both take long breaths, trying to calm themselves down and think clearly. From over her right shoulder, Elektra hears his voice faintly coming through the monitors and she rushes over, scanning the screens and seen where Finn was. 

“There.” She shows Rey how he was being dragged into an open blast door and Rey programs in the coordinates, her hand hovering above the button to shut it. Once the Rathtar passed through, she slammed the control, the blast door instantly closing on the tentacles as it screams in pain and drops Finn.

Finn rolls around, seeing the severed tentacles still wrapped around his waist and leg. He moves up, desperately prying off the sticky tentacles off himself. “Get off! Get off!” He stands, eyeing the tentacles as Rey and Elektra run up, beaming to see him alright. Finn stares to the two girls. “It had me! But the door—”

“That was lucky.” Rey chimes, the three of them heading off again towards where they had left the Falcon.

Han, Chewie and BB-8 take cover, Han glancing through the hangar to see the Falcon. “I got the door. Cover us!” Chewie agrees, firing down the hall and BB-8 was watching as he ducked down and Han worked on the door but the controls were damaged. Chewie hits a man, sending him down and another hits him which makes him wail in pain. “Chewie!” 

Han grabbed his bowcaster, firing at the man and he flew back on the ground which earned a “wow” from his lips, inspecting the bowcaster and asked Chewie if he was alright before firing at the controls to make the door open. He takes Chewie on out to the hangar, on the way to the Falcon as Elektra, Finn, and Rey joined them. 

“Han.” Rey eyes him. 

“You, close the door behind us.” She nods, going off and he points to Finn. “You, take care of Chewie!” Finn takes Chewie, having him throw his arm around him for support and leads him up on the ramp. 

In the cockpit, Han stands at the navicomputer, hitting switches as Elektra enters fast, moving past him to Chewie’s seat. “Ready?” She asks him, searching the panel.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“Rey said that Unkar Plutt installed a compressor on the ignition line and fuel pump that if we don’t prime, we’re not going anywhere soon.”

“I hate that guy.” 

The ship starts and Han sits in the pilot seat, Rey entering and watching both of them working together. Elektra hits a few buttons, glancing up to the windshield for a moment to see the reflection of Rey behind her; she drifts her eyes back down, flipping more switches. 

“Watch the thrust, we’re goin’ out of here at lightspeed—”

Shocked, Rey asked, “From inside the hangar? Is that even possible?”

“I never ask that question until after I’ve done it.” A Rathtar jumps onto the windshield, Rey screaming as it’s giant mouth was chewing on the glass as Han works the controls. “This is not how I thought this day was gonna go.” 

Elektra lightly laughs, raising her left arm above her to the switches above to angle the shields. “Hang on back there!” 

In the lounge Chewie is in pain and Finn was looting through a First Aid Kit, having a huge problem but still shouts, “No problem!” as three gang members travel out, seeing the Falcon getting ready to jump and fire at it, hitting the fuel lines with their blasters. 

“Come on baby, don’t let me down!” Han says to himself, trying to push the lever up but it wasn’t moving which caused him to look around, not understanding what was wrong. 

Rey and Elektra both point to the switch. “Compressor.” They chorus together in matter-of-factly tones. He presses it, the thrusters boosting them and they all flew back against their seats as the hyperdrive starts; them watching the Rathtar being ripped away as the stars stretch like elastic. 

Off the Falcon goes, the gang members are blasted back like dry leaves, effortless, by the thrusters. Bala-Tik heads up, watching them leave, seething and making a call. 

“Inform the First Order that Han Solo has the droid they want. And it’s aboard the Millennium Falcon.”


	3. A Forceback

“The droid will soon be delivered to the Resistance . . .”

On the magnificent, frozen white natural planet that was hacked and modified into something sinister, was the home of the Starkiller Base. There, General Hux and Kylo Ren stood in a dark assembly room, staring up at the hologram projection of Supreme Leader Snoke who wasn’t entirely human, at nearly twenty-five feet tall. All of him a stone grey color and he was old, wounded, fragile, speaking in a deep, deep voice meant to instill fear and claim power over anyone who dared to defy him.

“ . . . Leading them to the last Jedi.” He continues. “If Skywalker returns, the new Jedi will rise.”

“Supreme Leader, I take full responsibility for th—”

“General!” Snoke stands, cutting off General Huz from speaking. “Our strategy must now change.”

“The weapon.” He remarks, “It is ready. I believe the time has come to use it.” Kylo turns his head just enough to catch sight of him. “We shall destroy the government that supports the Resistance, the Republic. Without their friends to protect them, the Resistance will be vulnerable, and we will stop them before they reach Skywalker.”

Snoke considers it, sitting back down in his chair. “Go. Oversee preparations.”

Hux nods. “Yes, Supreme Leader.” He then turns, proud with cocksure, meeting Kylo’s gaze before exiting. 

A new intimacy starts in his voice as he began his talk with Kylo. “There’s been an awakening. Have you felt it?”

“Yes.”

“There’s something more. The droid we seek is aboard the Millennium Falcon. In the hands of your father, Han Solo.”

Kylo reacts with a subtle voice. “He means nothing to me.”

“Even you, master of the Knights of Ren, have never faced such a test.” 

Steely resolved, he informs Snoke, “By the grace of your training, I will not be seduced.”

“We shall see.” Snoke leans in close. “We shall see.” His call fades out, leaving Kylo all alone in the empty room. 

A fuse sparks in the cockpit, Han looking to it. “Electrical overload.”

Rey reacts fast. “I can fix that.”

“The coolant’s leaking.” Han eyes the panel. 

Both Rey and Elektra begin speaking at the same time to him. “Try transferring auxiliary power to the secondary—”

“Secondary tank, I got it!” He nods, flipping a switch. “You two need to stop that.” Han mutters under his breath. 

In the back, Chewie was growling, pushing Finn away from him as he tried to wrap his wound with bandages. “Chewie, come on! Finn glances over his shoulder. “I need help with this giant hairy thing!” BB-8 begins rolling over, chirping to help but Chewie roars at him and BB-8 yelps, scurrying away into the cockpit to be with Han, Elektra, and Rey. 

“You hurt Chewie, you’re gonna deal with me!” Han shouts. 

Finn was baffled. “ _Hurt_ him? He almost killed me six times!” Chewie then grabs him by the collar, yanking him close and Finn coughs. “Which is fine!”

Back in the cockpit, Han eyed all the beeping machinery. “This hyperdrive blows, there are gonna be pieces of us in three different systems.” Rey tugs on a metal piece, ripping it out and the hyperdrive normalizes, the alarms shutting off. Han and Elektra stare up at her as she began smiling wide, satisfied. “What did you do?”

She showed them the piece. “I bypassed the compressor.” Han gives a little, appreciative laugh and walks out of the cockpit to go and check on Chewie. 

Chewie was laying down, awake and Han checks out his arm with care. Chewie begins moan talking and Han shushes him. “Nah, don’t say that, you did great. Just rest.” He lets his friend go to recover, turning to Finn, who sits at the holochess set, BB-8 beside him. This is awkward for Han, but damn it, he means it when he tells Finn, “Good job, kid. And thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Finn leans his elbow on the chest set, him accidentally hitting a button and the pieces appear. They look up at him curiously then start to fight, Finn fiddling around to try and turn it off. 

Rey and Elektra head out, seeing Finn shut off the holochess and Han places his hands on his hips, looking to Elektra. “So, fugitives, huh?” 

Elektra opens up her arms, palms facing up as she gave a shrug. Han couldn’t help but grin, she was certainly a Solo just by doing that move. “What can I say? I’m just full of surprises nowadays.” 

“The First Order wants the map.” Rey informs him in. “Finn is with the Resistance. I’m just a scavenger and of course, you know Elektra . . .”

Han inspects Finn for a moment or two, skeptical, his eyes scanning over to BB-8. “Let’s see what you got.” 

BB-8 chirps to Rey, her telling him to go on and he moves to the center of the room, projecting a holographic map that filled the room; planets, stars, systems—all of it in front of their eyes. Chewie sits up while Han walks through, reflective of it all. “This map’s not complete. It’s just a piece. Ever since Luke disappeared, people have been looking for him.” 

Elektra steps up, seeing a red line that showed a route and eyed the names of the places, her hearing Rey ask, “Why did he leave?” 

“He was training a new generation of Jedi.” Han begins and Elektra felt herself go uneasy. “One boy, an apprentice turned against him, destroyed it all.” She closes her eyes, them hot from holding back tears. “Luke felt responsible . . . He walked away from everything.”

Finn watches Elektra’s back, he could tell that she was upset. “Do you know what happened to him?” He looks to Han. 

“A lot of rumors. Stories. The people who knew him the best think he went looking for the first Jedi temple.”

Rey steps forwards. “The Jedi were real?”

“I used to wonder about that myself. Thought it was a bunch of mumbo-jumbo. A magical power holding together good, evil, the dark side and the light. ‘Crazy thing is, it’s true.” He glances to Elektra who returned his gaze before peering to Finn and Rey. “The Force, the Jedi, all of it. It’s all true.”

The terminal began beeping and BB-8 clicked the projection off, rolling back as Han walked past him to the control station, him toggling a new knobs. 

“You want my help? You’re getting it. Gonna see an old friend. She’ll get your droid home. This is our stop.” He jabs his thumb towards the cockpit, Finn, Rey, Elektra, and BB-8 falling in line after as the Falcon drops out of lightspeed, heading towards the beautiful green planet of Takodana. 

Han pilots, Rey sitting in the copilot’s seat that Elektra allowed her to sit in as they entered the atmosphere, seeing forests and green valleys, and water all over. Rey tears up. “I never knew there was this much green in the whole galaxy.” 

Han peeks a look at her, feeling vulnerable at the fact that the girl has never seen something so earthly and alive. He looks forwards again, pressing on the thruster for them to fly in faster, cresting the Falcon to the left to reveal a castle on a picturesque lake. They fly over the water, landing near the castle and among dozens of worn, smallish freighters. 

Rey runs down the ramp, BB-8 next to her, and takes in the serene landscape; hearing birds chirping, water rushing, and feeling the warm, yet cool breeze blow past her. She closes her eyes, drawing in a deep breath to feel at peace while Han was still on the ship, searching for blasters. 

Finn strides up behind him. “Hey, Solo, I’m not sure what we're walking into here—”

“Did you just call me ‘Solo’?”

“Sorry. Han. Mr. Solo. You should know, I’m a big deal in the Resistance. Which puts a real target on my back. Are there any conspirators here? First Order sympathizers?”

Han twirls around, eyeing the boy. “Listen, ‘Big Deal’, you’ve got another problem.” He hands him a blaster by placing it directly into chest and hands. “Women always figure out the truth. Always.” Finn was racked with guilt, watching him leave and turns to Elektra who gives him a nod. 

Han heading out with a blaster pistol, seeing Rey and strolls up to her. He nudges her with the blaster, making her glance down to it, then up at him. “I think I can handle myself.” 

“I know you do. That’s why I’m giving it to you. Take it.” She does, gripping and holding it up to her eyesight. “You know how to use one of those?” 

“Yeah. You pull the trigger.” 

“Little bit more to it than that.” He lifts his hand, placing it on hers that held the pistol and lowers it. “You got a lot to learn. You got a name?” 

“Rey.”

“Rey.” He repeats it. “I’ve been thinkin’ about bringing on some more crew, Rey. A second mate. Someone to help out. Someone who can keep up with Chewie and me, appreciates the Falcon.”

She smiles softly. “Are you offering me a job?”

“I wouldn’t be nice to you. It doesn’t pay much.”

“You’re offering me a job.”

“I’m _thinking_ about it.”

Rey sadly glances down to her feet, wanting to say yes but she couldn’t; there was a line that she couldn’t cross and with accepting the job, that would be overstepping. 

“Well?”

Her eyes find his. “If you were, I’d be flattered. But I have to get home.”

Han looks at her, questioningly. “Where, Jakku?”

She nods. “I’ve already been away too long.”

Elektra slowly steps down the ramp with Chewie and Finn, having overheard their conversation. Han sees them from the corner of his eyes, calling to Chewie. “Check out the ship as best you can.” He then whispers to Rey, “It’s too bad. Chewie kind of likes you, and I think my daughter does too.” 

Rey finds herself smiling bashfully as he leaves, hearing someone else stepping up in the place where he was standing. To her side, on the left, Elektra standing there and looking out beyond the lake. Rey’s eyes traced the smeared linings of the black makeup she wore on her face like a mask, she was curious as to what it stood for—what it meant. But she was afraid that it’d be a dumb question to ask, turning away to advert her gaze before Elektra could know that she was staring but it had been too late. 

“Wanting to know what the makeup is for?” Rey shyly focuses back on her, biting her lip as Elektra takes a deep sigh. “There was an ancient Sith race called the Massassi; they were fearsome and loyal warriors, and their blood was the color of black. It was said that when of the warriors would die, they’d collect their blood and paint their faces with it for battle. They believed it kept them safe from harm—kept them safe from those who were able to manipulate the Force and use it on them. I wear the Massassi blood as a mask of projection, to hide who I am . . . Who I was suppose to be.” 

“Why would you want to hide who you are?” Rey was unsure, it didn’t make sense. What would make Elektra believe that she needed to hide in the first place? 

“For the same reason you want to go back to Jakku.” Elektra replies, finally matching Rey’s gaze; their eyes locking on without blinking. “We’re both holding onto something, but deep down we know already know the truth and we’re just too scared to admit it to ourselves.” 

Rey found herself going numb, going white but it vanished when Han called for them to follow him to the castle. Elektra starts off, BB-8 rolling after and she goes with Finn. 

“Solo, why are we here again?” Finn speaks up.

“To get your droid on a clean ship.”

Rey furrows her brows. “Clean?”

“Do you think it was luck that Chewie and I found the Falcon? If we can find it on our scanners, the First Order’s not far behind. Want to get BB-8 to the Resistance? Maz Kanata is our best bet.”

“Maz?” Elektra said with enthusiasm. “I haven’t seen her since . . .” Her voice wanders off.

Finn immediately wonders to her. “We can trust her, right?”

“Relax, kid.” Han interjects as they stepped up the cobblestone steps. “She’s run this watering hole for a thousand years. Maz is a bit of an acquired taste, so let me do the talking.” He pauses at the door, turning around to face them all, mostly Finn and Rey. “And whatever you do, don’t stare.”

“At what?” They both inquire. 

“Any of it.” 

Han opens the huge, doors, revealing a crowded mess of a hall and room full of rough and odd aliens and humans who were gambling, drinking, scheming, negotiating, and arguing. They walk in, seeing all the beings and Elektra finally sees Maz; a tiny orange, four foot alien that was in her thousands, wearing adjustable goggles. 

“Han Solo!” She announces loudly which makes the whole place grow quiet and turn to face them. 

“Oh, boy.” Han mutters and lifts his hand, putting on a forced smile and waved to her, yelling, “Hey, Maz!”

Everyone goes back to talking and the music begins playing as she makes her way through the crowd and stops at their feet to peer up at Han. “Where’s my boyfriend?” 

Finn, Rey, and Elektra give Han a look. “Chewie’s working on the Falcon.” 

“I like that Wookie.” A pause. “I assume you need something. Desperately. Let’s get to it.” She gestures for them to follow, and they do, passing back a few people who exchange a few whispers. 

A small droid, a GA-97, sees BB-8 rolling after the group, dispatching into his radio, “Alert the Resistance. Their missing droid is here.” 

A vixen sits with a Grummgar, whispering to him before getting up and entering the back where she makes her own call. “Inform the First Order. I’ve found the droid.” 

On the Star Destroyer, Kylo Ren is sitting down with his head hung, speaking out loud in the room that he was in. “Forgive me. I feel it again. The pull to the light.” He lifts his head upwards. “Supreme Leader senses it. Show me again, the power of the darkness, and I will let nothing stand in our way. Show me, Grandfather, and I will finish what you started.” He stands, eyeing the burnt, ashed, ghostly deformed mask of Darth Vader before exiting the room. 

BB-8 chirps to Maz, her nodding. “A map.” She then glimpses to Han. “To Skywalker himself?”

She chuckles. “You’re right back in the mess.”

“Maz, I need you to get this droid to Leia.” 

Elektra eats a fruit, chewing it slowly once Han mentions Leia, studying Maz who was pretending to think it through. “Hmm . . . No. You’ve been running away from this fight for too long. Han. Nyakee nago wadda. Go home.” 

Han shakes his head. “Leia doesn’t want to see me.” 

Elektra then got confused. “Wait, why?” She eyes her father. “Why wouldn’t Mom want to see you?” Han just ignores her question, not wanting to bother her with the story. 

“Your mother is the Resistance General?” Finn was very puzzled. Elektra nods. He scoffs, not able to make a coherent comment to her but rather puts his effort into speaking with Maz. “Please, we came here for your help.”

Rey had her own interest. “What fight?” She asks Maz.

“The only fight. Against the dark side. Through the ages, I’ve seen evil take many forms. The Sith. The Empire. Today, it is the First Order. Their shadow is spreading across the galaxy. We must face them. Fight them. All of us.” 

“There is no fight against the First Order.” Finn begins defensively. “Not one we can win.” Rey and Elektra eye him. “Look around. There’s no chance we haven’t been recognized already. Especially with us being here with Elektra. I bet you the First Order is on their way right—”

Finn stops, seeing Maz adjusting her goggles, the gears ticking, scrutinizing him as her eyes became huge. “What’s this? What are you doing?” 

Maz gets up on the table, moving plates and cups out of her way to get closer to Finn as she grunts in recognition. 

“Solo, what is she doing?” 

“I don’t know, but it ain’t good.” 

“If you live long enough, you see the same eyes in different people.” She says rather wisely, making Elektra perk up as Maz still examined Finn over. “I’m looking at the eyes of a man who wants to run.”

Finn leans in. “You don’t know a thing about me. Where I’m from. What I’ve seen. You don’t know the First Order like I do. They’ll slaughter us. We all need to run.” 

Rey is stunned and Elektra remains silent, and Maz expected it as she moves back, going into her seat. She points over in the corner of the room. “You see those two? They’ll trade work for transportation to the Outer Rim. There, you can disappear.”

“Finn?” Rey calls his name. 

“Come with me.”

“What about BB-8? We’re not done yet.” She explains. “We have to get him back to your base.”

BB-8 chirps anxiously and Finn looks to him, then to Rey, shaking his head. “I can’t.” 

Finn stands, going to hand the blaster over that Han gave him but he waves him off. “Keep it, kid.” Off Finn went and Rey got up, following him. 

Maz refocuses her goggles, eyeing Elektra. “Who’s the girl?” 

“Her name is Rey, a scavenger from Jakku.” 

“And why is she important?” 

Elektra shrugs. “I don’t know, I mean, I guess she just wanted to join Finn and I. And she’s never left Jakku and Jakku is not the best place to liv—” 

“No, my dear. That’s not what I’m asking.” Maz gives her a look. “Why is she important?” Elektra turns, staring off to Rey who was talking with Finn who looked embarrassed. 

“You can’t just go. I won’t let you.” She informs Finn.

“I'm not who you think I am.”

“Finn, what are you talking about?”

“I’m not Resistance. I’m not a hero. I’m a Stormtrooper.” He pauses. “Like all of them, I was taken from a family I’ll never know. And raised to do one thing. But my first battle, I made a choice. I wasn’t going to kill for them.” His voice gradually becomes emotional. “El, she understood me; she became a friend and someone I could trust . . . She allowed me to go at her own expense of being killed. So I ran. Right into you. And you looked at me the exact same way that Elektra had, and no one else had done that. I was ashamed of what I was. But I’m done with the First Order. I’m never going back.” 

“Don’t go.” Rey orders, her eyes getting glassy. 

Finn just stared at her, knowing that nothing could change his mind. “Take care of yourself.” His eyes then motion back over to where they were previously sitting. “And her. I may not remember my real family, but she’s the only thing I’ve got to one.” 

Rey looks at him, crushed. With quiet resignation, she watches as Finn returns to the aliens and the three of them head off towards the front door. She was heartsick but it changes as she hears a distant sound of a young girl in anguish, crying. Elektra had heard something was well, it was a young man calling her name. She had never heard the voice before and it echoed out, knowing that whatever she was hearing wasn’t coming from anyone in the room. 

The two girls followed the trace of sound that was coming down from the basement, BB-8 seeing them heading off and tags along in a stealth like manner; taking his time with rolling down the stone steps to reduce his thuds. 

Rey and Elektra were both in their own worlds, hearing two very different things but being led to the exact same place as if it were a beacon. They both knew each other was there and yet, none of them were speaking; they were still drawn to the voices. Side by side, they approach an airlock door that suddenly comes to life and opens to reveal a room filled with items that Maz had collected over the years. 

They’re both hesitant but follow in, Rey leading the way and kneeling down in front of a wooden box as BB-8 chirps. She was afraid, unsure, but tempted; lifting the hinge upwards and opens the box to see a lightsaber laying in it. Elektra moves up from behind, peering down to see it as well and a small gasp escaped her lips. 

“That belonged to my grandfather. Anakin.” 

Rey gazes up at Elektra before reaching forward, grabbing the hilt and stands up. She studies the lightsaber hilt, turning to face her and holds it out for Elektra to take it. Elektra freezes, her body tense and reluctantly, she lifts her hand and once she touches it they both hear a lightsaber being ignited and they both whip around in shock. 

The room grows dark, shifting into hallway from deep inside Cloud City with disembodied voices filling the air. **_Its energy . . ._** Elektra heard a voice speak, her turning to the left while Rey went to the right hearing the little girl crying out. They both split, running in opposite directions. Elektra’s heart thumped, beating fast and pulsing within her eardrums. She sped up, running faster as the corridor began turning, tilting which caused her land on the wall which suddenly became the ground; the hallway crumbled into rock. **_. . . surrounds us, and binds us._**

Elektra gazes up, seeing that it was night and there’s burning temple being watched by R2D2 and a hooded man was down on his knees next to him, placing his right metal hand on him and she instantly knew that it was Luke. It began pouring rain, thunder and lighting mixed in and one crack of lighting, she hears a lightsaber being activated and turns over to see a man getting impaled by a red blade from the back as he yells. Quickly, up on her feet, she sees her brother on a battlefield surrounded by the Knights of Ren and his fiery lightsaber was humming. 

**_The Force will be . . ._ ** another voice starts but just gets cut off by a new one

**_Any Jedi . . ._ **

Her brother looks over in her direction and she realizes that this is a memory, that this is a recall of events that had happened. Even with his mask on, she could tell that he was younger, that this happened around them being the age of twenty-three, which meant—

Elektra turns, seeing her younger self gazing back into her, into brother, and she could pinpoint what she was feeling at that moment. She felt like she couldn’t go back to her parents, to Luke, she felt that she had failed them and had let her brother go down this dangerous path and there was no point of return. 

With Rey, she had followed the voice and found herself in a barren, sandy wasteland and heard the little girl screaming again. She turns, seeing a younger version of her staring up at the sky. She shouts “no, come back” while Unkar Plutt pulls her along, telling her to be quiet. Rey turns, watching as the spaceship abandons her, knowing her parents were inside and it flies straight towards the eclipsed sun. 

More sounds of lightsabers echoed pass her and she turns, seeing a younger boy fighting with a green saber and a man dressed in an black outfit with a red saber. She had no idea who they were, but she watched as they fought, the man cutting off the boy’s hand. 

The scenery then changes for Rey and Elektra, them both being engulfed in darkness and transitioned to snowy woods. Side by side, they both stood, puzzled and confused by everything they were seeing. Rey takes Elektra’s hand, scared and in need of comfort. She never had this happen to her before and she didn’t know what else to do, she needed something to keep her grounded somehow. 

**_Bre?_ **The same voice that called Elektra to the lightsaber speaks again, making her eyes wander all around to find who it belongs to. 

**_Rey?_ ** Rey tries to ignore it, not sure what to believe and only focuses on Elektra because she knew that she was real; that she was corporeal. 

Elektra takes Rey with her, both running through the white trees, her mind feeling bugged. She wanted to escape whatever this was, hoping it’d last soon. 

Around a tree they’re about to go but are sprung upon by the appearance of Kylo, wielding his lightsaber and they both fall from being startled. 

The girls fall out of the storage room, out of breath, perplexed and alarmed. Elektra hearing a voice, saying to her, **_You will try_ **. 

Rey hears her own, one directed to her. **_These are your first steps_ **. 

BB-8 rolls up to them, seeing if they’re alright as Rey gazes to Elektra with tears in her eyes. “What was that?” 

“A Forceback.” She tells her, sensing that someone else was there other than just the three of them. Elektra glances down the hall, seeing Maz. 

Rey stands up, dusting herself off. She was emotional, speechless, and still overwhelmed by it all. “I shouldn’t have gone in there.” 

Maz comes over, helping up Elektra who was like her own child and speaks to Rey. “That lightsaber was Luke’s. And his father’s before him. And now, it calls out to the both of you.” 

“I need to get back to Jakku.” She utters. 

“Han told me.” Maz lifts off her goggles, holding her hand out to Rey and Rey takes it, kneeling before her as Elektra stood behind Maz. “Dear child. I see your eyes. You already know the truth. Whomever you’re waiting for on Jakku, they’re never coming back.” Rey lets her tears fall over, her sniffling. “But . . . There’s someone who still could.” 

Softly, she speaks, “Luke.” 

“The belonging you seek is not behind you it is ahead.” Maz tells her, being wise. “I am no Jedi, but I know the Force. It moves through and surrounds every living thing. Close your eyes. Feel it.” She then turns her head ever so slightly, side glancing back at Elektra. “The light . . . it’s always been there. It will guide you.” 

Elektra nods, feeling her inner conflict arises once again.

“The saber. You two must take it.” 

Rey shakes her head, standing up. “I’m never touching that thing again. I don’t want any part of this.” She goes up the stairs, leaving her, Elektra, and BB-8 all by themselves. 

“The saber called to you, Bre.” Maz peers up at her. “Shouldn’t that tell you something?” 

“It’s my family’s, of course it’d call to me.” She shrugs it off, trying to make it seem like it was no big deal when, in fact, it was. 

“You know that’s not true because it called to her as well.” 

“Maz,” Elektra stares down at the older alien. “What do you want from me?” 

“You believe that you can’t go back because of your choice, but you can. You’re still Bre Solo, and you always will be.” 

On the Starkiller base, there was a massive rally with thousands of Stormtroopers, TIE fighters, officers and vehicles. Snow fell with the harsh windows ripping at the First Order flags that were flanked up all around the podium where General Hux stood to make the speech, Captain Phasma standing behind him. 

“Today is the end of the Republic! The end of a regime that acquiesces to disorder! At this very moment, in a system far from here the New Republic lies to the galaxy while secretly supporting the treachery of the loathsome Resistance. This fierce machine which you have built, upon which we stand, will bring an end to the Senate! To their cherished fleet! All remaining systems will bow to the First Order! And will remember this . . . as the last day of the Republic!”All the Stormtroopers place their left fists upwards, halting and places them downwards. 

In the control room, engineers perform the final protocol and some where nervous if the machine would actually work or not but among them hearing Hux call for fire, they started up the machine. 

All the Stormtroopers turn, watching as an impossible blast of red fire light erupts from miles away and up into the sky; everyone is pushed back from the magnitude of it. All the snow and ice that was in the location of the firebeam melts instantly, the trees are blown away and lifted off the ground, piling over. In space, Kylo Ren watches from the Star Destroyer, seeing how the beam broke off into five smaller beams to hit each Republic planet. 

Back down on Takodana, Finn was boarding himself up on the Alien Freighter when he hears the sound, glancing up to see the red beam and his blood runs ice cold once he realizes the path that it’s taking. Elektra was outside, trying to find Rey with BB-8’s help but once she heard the sound too, she stopped and watched in horror, hearing booms as a few of the rays of the beam hit the smaller planets. 

Aliens exit Maz’s castle, starring up and they all exclaim in different languages how the sight struck fear into them all. Han and Chewie follow out, looking up and stand next to Elektra. Finn comes running over, pushing through the crowd. “It was the Republic. The First Order, they’ve done it.” He then eyes them all, looking to Elektra. “Where’s Rey?” 

“She—” Elektra slips on her sentence, noticing that BB-8 was nowhere to be found. “Where’s BB-8?” 

In the forest, Rey races through and finally comes to a halt, panting and not sure where to go; where to turn to. Then she hears a beep, looking back to see that BB-8 has found her. “What are you doing? You have to go back.” 

He beeps inquisitively. 

“I’m leaving.” She steps towards him, kneeling down. “BB-8. No, you can’t. You have to go back, you’re too important. They’ll help you.” From above, she heard the exact engine noise from Jakku, standing up to see TIE fighters and other First Order ships coming in. Her heart falls out of her chest, realizing that her friends were in trouble, she runs towards them; back to Maz’s castle. 

Maz leads in front of Finn, Chewie, and Han, striding through the basement and towards the storage room that Elektra and Rey were in. “I’ve had this for ages,” she heads in, going over to the wooden box that she put it back in and takes it out. “Kept it locked away.” 

“Where’d you get that?” Han questions. 

“A good question for another time.” She then turns it to Finn. “Take it! Give it to Elektra.” He takes it, holding it sturdy as the room shakes and sprays down dust. “Those beasts! They’re here.” 

Rey runs up a hill in the forest, making it to the outskirts and witnesses the sight of Maz’s castle being blasted by TIE fighters; pieces of it breaking off and falling down below. Aliens scream, running for cover and safety as Stormtroopers came in for attack. Over on her right, a filtered radio calls grabs her attention for her to see a Trooper that was nearby. 

“FN-417, hold position!” 

Rey panics, reaching for the blaster pistol that Han gave her. She aims, trying to shoot but it clicks. “Oh, safety.” She hurries, switching off safety just as the Trooper notices her, firing a blast but he misses. Rey aims missing, firing once and on the second, she got him; killing him. Stunned, she eyes the blaster and hears more of the Troopers coming, facing them and fired once again before running back off into the forest with BB-8. 

Once they make a break, Rey killing the last Trooper that was chasing her, she crouches down to BB-8, telling him to leave and that they’ll hopefully meet up again. He returns the sentiment, rolling away and she gets back up to fight; to hold them off until the droid had enough cover. 

Maz’s castle was in ruins and Kylo Ren walked through the debris, seeing Troopers fighting off those who were fighting back and heard a Trooper call to him, telling him that the droid had been spotted going west with a girl. Sharply he turns, staring off into Rey’s direction and heads for it. 

Chewie lifts up a piece of wood that blocked their path, allowing him, Han, Finn, and Maz to escape. Han had his blaster pistol, aiming at a Trooper and shot through his chest. He shoots another then moves his arm behind him, shooting a Trooper without even looking; and it was a dead shot. 

“Come on, Chewie! We need to find Bre!” Han shouts, running down the massive heap of destruction. Chewie growls back, getting his bowcaster and follows. 

Maz looks to Finn. “Your friends need you! Go!” 

He eyes her. “I need a weapon!” 

She then grabs his wrist, picking it up so he could see that he was holding the lightsaber. “You have one!” He studies it, pressing the button for the blue blade to be activated, humming intensely. 

Finn goes running, seeing a Trooper shooting a civilian and once the man turns, he shoves it through the chest. Though untrained, he was athletic and impressive. “Traitor!” He turns, seeing another Trooper who throws away his blaster and shield, readying his Riot Baton while Finn wields the saber up and close to his face. 

The Trooper runs at him, doing a stabbing motion but Finn blocks with the saber, being pressed back and blocks the baton again and again. He moves back, dodging the blows before he’s the one that tries to play offense. Finn swings, lurching forwards, doing the stab technique before swinging up the saber and bringing it down on the Trooper but he blocks it with the Riot Baton. Finn holds it until the Trooper plays dirty punches him with a free hand, knocking him loose and tumbling back. The Trooper whacks him in the chest, making Finn fly back against the ground which knocks the wind from his lungs; the lightsaber clicking off during impact. 

The Trooper towards over him, lifting his baton to bring it down on Finn until he’s hit and blasted backwards with a blaster. Wide eyed, Finn turns over onto his stomach, seeing who took the shot and there stood Elektra with her blaster pistol. He lets out a small smile, happy that she was there to help. She redirects Han and Chewie over to Finn while she headed off, determined to save more people. 

Han lent out his hand, Finn taking it and helping him upwards. “You okay, Big Deal?” He teases. 

“Yeah.” 

“Don’t move.” Stormtroopers surround them, blasters aimed. “TK-338, we have targets in custody.” 

Their weapons are taken and they’re told to place their hands on the tops of their heads, being marched over to where a few others had been captured. In the sky, there’s a familiar noise and the Stormtroopers all go hide, taking cover. Chewie grunts, him and Han removing their hands from their heads as they seen X-wings on the horizon. 

“It’s the Resistance.” 

In the X-wing, marked orange and black, was the one and only Poe Dameron. “Go straight ahead and don’t let these dogs scare you!” He radios to the other pilots. 

“Copy that!”

“We’re with you, Poe!”

The sky was in battle, TIE fighters against X-wings, ships were exploding and being chased down. Poe especially fired at a few Troopers on the ground, giving Han, Chewie, and Finn time to retrieve their weapons. But this time, Finn got a Stormtrooper blaster and the lightsaber, in his left and the blaster in his right. 

Elektra was fighting with a Stormtrooper in hand-to-hand combat, her bending backwards to avoid the baton and she blocked the one electrifying blow with her leather cuff. Staring at the Stormtrooper in the eyes and she could tell that, even with his mask on and not seeing his face, that he was shocked by this move. 

“You never did listen in class.” She remarks, shooting him in the foot with her pistol then kicked him in the stomach to send him back on the ground before shooting him in the chest. 

In the darkened woods, Rey, terrified, keeps her blaster pistol aimed. Her eyes darting all around for any pursuers but stills once she hears the unique sound of Kylo Ren’s lightsaber coming to life—a sound that she’s heard in what Elektra called a Forceback. She slowly starts moving back, keeping her eyes peeled and before she knew it, he appears out from behind a tree. 

Rey began firing, Kylo deflecting every shot with his lightsaber; quickly, she runs up a small slope, getting higher ground to distance herself from him. She continues firing ferociously but he kept on her and she was getting even more frantic. Suddenly, he raises his hand and Rey’s hand that held the pistol is thrown back behind her and she gasps. She can’t move, she tries but it’s no use as her body was vibrating at a high frequency. 

“The girl that I’ve heard so much about.” Slowly, Kylo walks around her, seeing that she wanted to cry but willed herself not to. “The droid.” He turns, whipping his lightsaber right next to her face, illuminating it. “Where is it?” 

He turns off his saber, heading back in front of her and holds out his hand as she strains in agony from what he was doing. “The map. You’ve seen it.” Kylo was surprised by this and Rey was horrified, him taking more from her mind. She squeezes her eyes shut, her suffering becoming unbearable but it stops once a Stormtrooper speaks. 

“Sir, Resistance fighters. We need more troops.” 

Kylo heads up to them. “Pull the division out.” He goes straight back to Rey. “Forget the droid. We have what we need.” With a wave of his hand, Rey goes unconscious and he scoops her up in his arms, carrying her back to his ship. 

On the ruins of the castle, Elektra watches as the Stormtroopers pull away, retreating into the shuttle. Her eyes scanned, seeing the silhouette of her brother carrying Rey in his arms and onto the ship. Han stepped up beside her, seeing his son for the first time in years and felt remorseful.

Finn seen them two, him taking off in a hurry to try and catch up with the shuttle. “No! No, no!” He kept on running, knowing that he’d never make it in time but it didn’t hurt to try. The shuttle lifts, rising up into the air and takes off. “Rey!!” He shouts helplessly as Elektra stepped up next to him, watching in silence. “They took her, El. They took Rey, did you see that?” 

“It’s because she seen the map.” She simply states and Finn was bewildered at her calmness. “Must’ve searched her mind when he captured—” Elektra spins on her heel, seeing the Resistance Transport land and she loses her track of mind. 

The transport door opens, Resistance commanders heading out and there came Leia Organa. Han was already there with Chewie and BB-8, staring at her, stunned. Husband and wife, reunited for the first time in years, giving each other humble smiles and the moment was interrupted as C-3PO pops in between them. 

“Goodness! Han Solo! It is I, See-Threepio!” He replies cheerily. “You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.” He motions to it then turns to Leia. “Look who it is, did you see who—” She raises her eyebrows, and C-3PO stammers. “Uh. Hmm. Excuse me, Princ . . . General. Sorry. Come along, BB-8.” The droids both head off.

Han placed his hands on his hips, smoke filling the air and embers crackling. “You changed your hair.”

“Same jacket.”

“No, new jacket.” Chewie steps forwards, grunting softly and gives Leia a hug that she returns back, smiling. Han then frowned, knowing that he had to tell her. “I saw him. Leia, I saw our son. He was here . . . And our daughter.” 

He moves out of the way, revealing Elektra who was treading up with Finn. Leia humbly smiled, her daughter being there in her presence and seeing that nothing had completely changed about her. Elektra musters up a smile, taking bigger steps and Leia does the same, them both meeting and enveloping into a hug. Leia cradles her head while Elektra just buried herself into her mother’s loving arms, so happy to feel at home. 

“My special girl,” Leia whispers and that makes Elektra burst into tears. 

“I’m sorry for everything.” She whimpers. 

“I know.” She rubs her back, trying to soothe and calm her down. Elektra backs away from her, sniffling and nodding her head to focus on her breathing while Leia noticed a few braids in her hair, cooing softly. “Everyone always told me that they saw me in you, I was flattered, but you were definitely Han’s child through and through.” 

“You still believe it?” 

“Of course I do.” She brings Elektra back in for another hug, kissing the side of her head. “Of course, I do.” Leia repeats, making sure that Elektra knew that she was loved and that no matter what, she’d always be her daughter and she’d love her unconditionally.


	4. Resistance

One step onto the D’Qar and out of the Millennium Falcon, Elektra felt her whole body shiver, eyes wandering to gaze at grassy mounds that covered the hangar. Finn was at her side, desperately looking at the Resistance pilots but got bumped out of the way as BB-8 went rolling towards the one that came out of an black marked X-Wing. The pilot takes off his helmet, revealing himself to be Poe and BB-8 chirps happily which gains his attention and has him run to the droid. “BB-8, my buddy.” Poe kneels, hugging him. “Oh, it’s so good to see you.” 

BB-8 chirps again. 

“Finn saved you? Where is he?” 

Finn took off down the ramp, Elektra seeing him go. “Poe?” He calls out, sprinting as Poe glances up to him in pure happiness and stands. “Poe Dameron, you’re alive?” 

“Buddy!” Poe runs, both embracing each other tightly. “So are you!”

Finn backs away, staring into his eyes. “What happened to you?” 

“What happened? I got thrown from the crash. I woke up at night. No you. No ship. Nothing.” BB-8 rolls on over, staring up at the two and caught sight of Elektra slowly heading up behind Finn shyly while Poe continued. “BB-8 says that you saved him.” 

“No, no, no. It wasn’t just me.” 

“You completed my mission, Finn—that’s my jacket.” Poe remarks, finally noticing it and Finn goes to remove it but he stops him. “No, no, no. Keep it. It suits you.” Poe then bit his bottom lip, patting his shoulder. “You’re a good man, Finn.” 

Poe’s eyes then drifted, Finn’s following his line and turns to see Elektra. Finn smiled wide. “You guys never officially met. Elektra, this is Poe Dameron. Poe Dameron, El—”

“Bre Solo,” he states and Elektra just gave him a timid expression. “She talked about you a lot.” A pause. “That’s how I knew when I first saw you that I could trust you.” 

Elektra felt herself give him a small, bashful smile, nodding to him. “But I can’t go by that name anymore. Too much has happened. I’m not that person anymore.”

“I think you still are,” Poe softly tells her, “you’re just not sure if you’re worthy of it.” 

Finn then saw how Elektra’s face changed, the girl that she once knew to be so confident and strong was now filled with doubt, crumbling internally so those could not see what was really happening on the outside. He gently placed his hand on her back, trying to give her comfort before he peers to Poe. 

“Poe, we need your help.” 

Down the steps of the makeshift command center that was buried deep among vines and root, Elektra sees her mother standing with a group of Resistance Officers. Poe leads them directly over, excusing himself for barging in on their conversation and introduced her to Finn. 

Leia takes his hand. “That was incredibly brave, what you did. Renouncing the First Order, saving this man’s life.” She then nods towards Poe. 

Finn was surprised that she knew but he shrugged it off. “Thank you, ma’am. But a friend of mine—and El’s—was taken prisoner.”

“Han told me about the girl. I’m sorry.” 

Both Elektra and Finn were startled until Poe jumps in. “Finn’s familiar with the weapon destroyed the Hosnian system. He worked on the base.”

“We’re desperate for anything you can tell us.” Leia looks to Finn.

“That’s where our friend was taken.” 

Elektra then adds, “We’ve got to get there. Fast.”

Leia nods, understanding his hurry. “And I will do everything I can to help, but first you two must tell us all you know.”

“Mom,” Elektra starts to say, her tone was hushed, rapsy yet delicate. She wanted to beg her mother to not ask questions first and save later, but to save first then ask questions. But Elektra knew that her mother needed to know the information so the Resistance wouldn’t die off; she was smarter than that and she agreed. It’s better to know the enemy than to run in in a blaze of glory. 

So, there Elektra went, beginning to explain everything from helping Finn and Poe escape the Star Destroyer, to heading Jakku and meeting Rey, to getting the Millennium Falcon and Chewie and Han finding them. Lastly, she told how Kylo took Rey possibly for the sole purpose that she had seen the piece of the map that BB-8 had. 

“General, I regret to inform you, but this map recovered from BB-8 is only partially complete.” C-3PO announces, having taken out the data device from BB-8 and inserts it into the base computer. A hologram projection displays and Han, Leia, Elektra, gander at it with a few others that surrounded them. “And even worse, it matches no charted system on record. We simply do not have enough information to locate Master Luke.”

Leia was studying it, trying to see if anything matched but when nothing did, she was dispirited. “I can’t believe I was so foolish to think that I could just find Luke and bring him home.”

Han eyes her sorrowfully. “Leia . . .”

“Don’t do that.” She tells him, heading off. 

“Do what?” 

“Anything.” 

Flummoxed, Han exchanges a look with C-3PO. “Princesses.” 

Han lingers eyes to Elektra who was still eyeing the map, thinking and he turns on his heel to pursue his wife across the base floor. “I’m trying to be helpful.”

Leia starts down the small steps, chuckling. “When did that ever help?” Han went to speak. “And don’t say the Death Star.” 

He then sighed, tone of voice changes and becomes soft. “Listen to me, will you?” Leia faces him. “I know every time you . . . every time you look at me, you’re reminded of him.”

“You think I want to forget him? I want him back. Like how we got our daughter back.” 

“There’s nothing more we could’ve done,” Han replied sympathetically, his eyes glistening as the next part for him to say was hard. “There’s too much Vader in him.” 

“That’s why I wanted him to train with Luke.” Leia states, taking a breather. “And Bre—you know how they were; could never separate them. If he was to go, she had to go with . . . I just never should have sent him away. That’s when I lost him. When I lost Bre. When I lost you, too.” 

“We both had to deal with it in our way. I went back to the only thing I was ever any good at.”

Leia tears up, nodding tenderly. “We both did.” 

“We lost our son. Forever.” 

“No.” Leia says without hesitation. “It was Snoke. He seduced our son to the dark side. But we can still save him. Me. You. Bre.” 

“If Luke couldn’t reach him, how could I?”

“Luke is a Jedi. You’re his father.” Han listens to her words carefully. “Bre didn’t just join him when he turned because she didn’t have a choice, it’s because she knew that there was still a part of him that was good; that was still in the light. And I know it, too.”

General Statura came over, telling Leia that the reconnaissance report for the enemy base was on its way and she excused herself from Han, leaving with the other general while Han just stood there with his thoughts. 

Starkiller Base, in a holding cell, Rey wakes and is disoriented. She sees that she was strapped in an angeled, upright restraining chair. She stares forwards, startled by seeing Kylo Ren kneeling before her. “Where am I?” 

“You’re my guest.”

“Where are the others?” 

“Do you mean the murders, traitors, and thieves you call friends?” Rey just stares at him. “You’ll be relieved to hear that I have no idea.” She studies him, fearful yet curious. “You still want to kill me.” 

“That happens when you’re being hunted by a creature in a mask.”

Kylo pauses, considering her and reaches up to his helmet, unlatching it. He then stands, pulling it off to reveal his face to her. Rey was stunned, he really did look like Elektra but he had brown eyes and his hair appeared to be black, thick, curly, and approximately chin-length. He was a young adult, with light skin, and he carried himself with dominance. 

He places his helmet down, drawing closer to Rey and she regains her defiance. “Tell me about the droid.” 

“He’s a BB unit with a selenium drive and a thermal hyperscan vindicator—”

“He’s carrying a section of a navigational chart. We have the rest, recovered from the archives of the Empire but we need the last piece. And somehow, you convinced the droid to show it to you. You. A scavenger.” Rey tears up, wondering how he knew; her fear returning. “You know I can take whatever I want.” 

Kylo raises his hand, Rey trying to recoil but she had nowhere to go. She began straining in agony, clenching her jaw and blinks, releasing the salty tears. His hand lingered near her face, him sensing how she felt. 

“You’re so lonely. So afraid to leave. At night, desperate to sleep. You imagine an ocean.” Then, a slight smile appears on his face. “I see it. I see the island. And Han Solo. You feel like he’s the father you’ve never had.” Kylo then felt himself getting upset. “He would have disappointed you.”

“Get out of my head.” Rey utters. 

He backs away, his hand still out to her. “I know you’ve seen the map. It’s in there.” 

“She saw it, too.” Rey’s eyes were fierce, realizing that Kylo’s hand droops at the mention of his sister. “Not just me.” 

He brings his hand back up to where it previously was, maintaining his strong appearance. “But you, you’ll give it to me.” 

Rey then felt the pull, her grunting in anguish. “I’m not . . giving you anything.” Her strength was coming from somewhere, she wasn’t sure where, but she had it. 

“We’ll see.” Kylo pressed harder, peering intently into her eyes. 

Rey gasps, straining still and leaning forwards which makes Kylo’s confidence melt away as he was slammed against her mind’s barrier. The confrontation continues, Rey entering his head as she fought back and is amazed by everything she sees; his friendship with Elektra, the two of them being a duo that was a force to be reckoned with just like the actual Force. They were balance, a special bond—a rare genetic breed like Leia and Luke. She then sees his fear, his weakness and unbeknownst to her, began to speak it. 

“You. You’re afraid. That you will never be as strong as Darth Vader!”

Kylo withdraws his hand back, Rey being released and exhaling deeply as her face was red hot and her body relaxes. Kylo shudders, his eyes glistening as he was confused and rattled by what had just happened. He then leaves the room with his helmet in hand, shutting her in with a Stormtrooper to go and talk with Snoke. 

“The scavenger, resisted you?” The hologram of Snoke speaks, staring down at Kylo in the assembly room. 

“She’s strong with the Force. Untrained, but stronger than she knows.” 

“And the droid?” 

Kylo hesitates with the truth but General Hux enters in from behind, speaking first. “Ren believed it was no longer valuable to us. That the girl was all we needed.” He stands on the platform next to Kylo, staring up at the Supreme Leader. “As a result, the droid has most likely been returned to the hands of the enemy. They may have the map already.” 

Snoke was visibly furious. “Then the Resistance must be destroyed before they get to Skywalker.”

“We have their location. We tracked their reconnaissance ship to the Ileenium system.” Hux states. 

“Good. Then we will crush them once and for all. Prepare the weapon.” Snoke orders and Hux exits once again. 

Kylo was speechless, stunned by the moment. This isn’t what he meant at all. He tries to change Snoke’s mind. “Supreme Leader, I can get the map from the girl. I just need your guidance.”

“If what you say about this girl is true, bring her to me.” He requested and Kylo just nods, placing back on his helmet, clasping it and leaves. 

Back in the holding cell, Rey was struggling to get out and pauses once she hears indistinct radio chatter coming from the Stormtrooper. She was being flooded with emotions, feeling her potential, the strength that had been unearthed by her moment of mentally fighting Kylo. If she was able to get into his mind, _perhaps,_ anything was possible. 

“You will remove these restraints . . . And leave this cell, with the door open.” 

The Stormtrooper looks over at her. “What did you say?” 

She shifts uncomfortably in her seat, confidence wavering but she repeats herself with the best tone of voice. “You will remove these restraints. And leave this cell, with the door open.” 

With his rifle aimed, the Trooper rounds the side, staring at her. Rey’s heart pounds, she wasn’t sure if she was about to be killed, freed, or even laughed at. The tension was unbearable. 

“I’ll tighten those restraints, scavenger scum.”

She calms herself, and after a moment, tries once more. “You will remove these restraints. And leave this cell, with the door open.” 

The Trooper’s body straightens out, him staring at her. “I will remove these restraints. And leave this cell, with the door open.” He reaches down, pushing the button that unlatched the restraints, and began heading for the door to open it. 

Rey rubs her wrists, shocked that it had worked then quickly added in another request as he opened the door. “And you’ll drop your weapon.” 

“And I’ll drop my weapon.” He lets his rifle fall from his hand, clashing onto the floor and Rey gets up, running and picks it up before escaping. 

Kylo charged through the halls, his feet stomping and once he entered the empty cell, seeing no one there, he felt himself getting angry. “No.” He softly mumbles. “No.” This time he shouts, taking out his lightsaber and activating the red, fiery blades and began slashing at everything. “Guards!” He screams in rage. 

Out in the hall, two Stormtroopers were about the pass the cell, stopping when they hear Kylo’s tantrum, seeing sparks and pieces of metal flying every which way as he shouted for the guards again. The two back away slowly, heading back the way they came. Meanwhile, Hux had ordered the control workers to charge the weapon; a wave of brilliant reflections like a planetary-scale tesla coil line of energy traveling from the sun to the Starkiller Base planet to be absorbed by the weapon. 

“The scan data from Snap’s reconnaissance flight confirms Finn’s report.” Poe remarks to the group that was huddled around the map table which displays a wireframe hologram of a rolling surface view of the Starkiller Base. There stood Finn, Han, Leia, Chewie, C-3PO, Statura, Ackbar, Brance, Snap, and others. Elektra just sat in the back, overhearing them and watching; she still felt like the villain. Like the outcast. She had the right to be there, but didn’t deserve to be. 

Snap then speaks. “They’ve somehow created a hyper lightspeed weapon built within the planet itself.”

“A laser cannon?” Brance questions. 

“We’re not sure how to describe a weapon of this scale.” Snap shakes his head. 

Major Ematt thought back to his horrible memories. “It’s another Death Star.” 

“I wish that were the case, Major.” Poe tells him, hitting the one control and a wireframe of the Death Star appears. Small, tiny, the size of a human head. He hits another, the Death Star shrinking to make room for the projection of Starkiller Base which put the Death Star to shame. “This is the Starkiller Base.” Majority of everyone in the room gasps, it was news to them and this is what gains Elektra’s attention, drawing her to a stand. 

“So it’s big.” Han shrugs it off. 

Admiral Ackbar speaks, “How is it possible to power a weapon of this size?” 

“It uses the power of the sun. As the weapon is charged, the sun is drained until it disappears.” Finn announces just as an Officer hands Leia a datacard. 

She reads it off. “The First Order. They’re charging the weapon again, now.” Her heart then sinks. “Our system is the next target.” 

“Oh my. Without the Republic fleet, we’re doomed.” C-3PO shook his head. 

“Okay, how do we blow it up?” Han asks and everyone lays their eyes on him. “There’s always a way to do that.” 

No one speaks, the silence frustrating Leia. “Han’s right.” She says out loud which surprises him. 

Admiral Statura was hesitant but speaks slowly. “In order for that amount of power to be contained, that base would need—”

“A thermal oscillator.” Elektra cuts him off, making her way up through the crowd and besides Poe. “There is one.” All eyes were on her and Finn couldn’t help but smile at her, grateful that she finally felt comfortable and that he wasn’t alone in this. Her eyes find him, and she nods for him to continue on with what she was saying. 

He moves around the Starkiller Base hologram, pointing at the one hexagonal structure. “Here. Precinct 47.” 

“If we can destroy that oscillator,” Statura began to theorize, “it might de-stabilize the core and cripple the weapon.”

“Maybe the planet.” Ematt nods. 

Poe eyes the structure of the oscillator, trying to bolster the spirits of the pilots in the room. “We’ll go in there and we’ll hit that oscillator with everything we got.”

Ackbar eyes Poe, who stands beside him. “They have defensive shields that our ships cannot penetrate.” 

Han then started, “We disable the shields.” He then looks to Finn. “Kid, you worked there, what do you got?”

“I can do it.” 

Han then peers to Elektra, pointing towards Finn. “I like this guy.” 

“El and I can disable the shields.” Finn travels around the table, standing next to her to show that she was just as important to the cause. “But we have to be there, on the planet.”

“We’ll get you there.” Han nods, glancing towards Chewie. 

Leia glances to him. “Han, how?”

“If I told you, you wouldn’t like it.”

Poe grins from their plan. “So Finn and Ellie disable the shields, take out the oscillator and we blow up their big gun.” Elektra then flicks her stare to Poe, it dawned on her that he had given her a nickname but her thoughts were dismantled as Chewie roars in response, ready for action. “Alright. Let’s go!”

All the Resistance fleet began preparing for mission, inspecting their crafts, including Snap, Nien and Nunb. Mechanics make adjustments as Crews fuel the jets. Ground controllers move ships into takeoff formation. Poe is at his black-marked X-wing, seeing Finn walk past and gives him a happy nudge as BB-8 being pulled up by the mechanical claw. Finn, despite it all, lets a little laugh come across his lips and continued on towards the Millennium Falcon, where Han was readying it for one more daring run—probably it’s last. 

“Chewie, check that donal capitator. Come on. Let’s go.” Han tells him, watching as Elektra was cleaning her blaster and he turns to see that Finn was trying to put orbs into his one pack that Han told him to get. They were just falling all over and Han shook his head. “Finn, be careful with those. They’re explosives.” 

Finn then looks up at him in shock. “Now, you tell me?” 

Elektra smiles, watching from the ramp then witnesses her mother stalking up behind her father. She listens in. “No matter how much we fought, I’ve always hated watching you leave.”

Han turns to see her. “That’s what I did it. So you’d miss me.” 

Leia smiles, stepping up to be closer. “I did miss you.” 

Sweetly, he eyes her, thinking back to the memories. “It wasn’t all bad, was it? Huh? Some of it was . . . good.”

“Pretty good.” 

“Some things never change.” 

Leia smiles. “True. You still drive me crazy.” Han places his hands on her shoulders and it was as if it could be thirty years ago. They both know there’s a good chance he won’t make it back so he pulls her tight, holding for dear life; Leia does the same. Quietly, and longingly, she says, “If you see our son again, bring him home.” 

They slowly drift from one another, Leia seeing Elektra helping out Finn and Han stares, too. Their daughter was back in their lives, she was smiling with Finn, speaking with Chewie and boarded the ship with the supplies. 

“At least we have one.” Han whispers. 

“She may be our daughter, Han. But I see Luke in her. Makes me fear the worst.” 

Han was confused. “And why is that a bad thing?” 

“History repeats.” Her eyes linger before meeting with Han’s. “If Ben’s too much like Vader, and Bre’s too much like Luke . . .” She didn’t need to say the rest, Han understood and that placed heartbreak within him. 

At the Starkiller Base, Kylo was looking through the halls, getting called by a female Stormtrooper. He stops, facing her. “Sensors triggered in hangar 718. We’re searching the area.” 

“She’s just beginning to test her powers. The longer it takes to find her, the more dangerous she becomes.” 

He exits and the group of Troopers went down another hall while Rey was hiding in the alcove with the Trooper Guard’s rifle held tight. Once the coast is clear, she gets up and rushes down the one glossy hall, passing by a room and aimed inside just in case anyone was there and continues on running. 

In the Falcon, Han was driving through lightspeed, Chewie in the co-pilot’s seat while Finn and Elektra stood behind them. “How are we getting in?”

“Their shields have a fractional refresh rate. Keeps anything traveling slower than lightspeed from getting through.” 

Finn was instantly filled with dread, gandering to Elektra then to Han. “We’re gonna make our landing approach at lightspeed?” 

Chewie then growl talks, thinking it was crazy too but says, “Hell yes, we are.” 

“Chewie, get ready.” Han tells him. Elektra and Finn sit back, buckling themselves in as Han inspects the panel indicators. “Now!”

The thrusters fire, the scenery changes from lightspeed to snow-covered rock caps of the mountains and forests. “Dad, pull up!” Elektra shouts. 

Chewie tells him the same. “I am pulling up!” He shouts back, but there was no time before the Falcon plows through the trees; breaking off branches and jerking them all around inside of the ship. The alarms began to blare and Han tries his best to steer, Chewie telling him to go higher so they wouldn’t wreck the ship. “I get any higher, they’ll see us!”

Out of the forest they went, crashing into the snowy ground nose first, digging through a thousand yards until it comes to a spinning, canted stop at the ledge, covered in snow. Finn grunted, shaking his head to try and clear it and Elektra just eyed her father from the back. “Marvelous driving, dad.” 

Across the snowy terrain, the four of them trekked; Finn and Elektra were used to the cold for the planet had been their home for years but for Han, he was in a huge, winter coat to keep warm. There were walkers on the horizon, Elektra and Finn move back, hiding behind a base structure. Elektra had her pistol blaster, Han had his, Finn had a blaster, and Chewie held his bowcaster and held the bag filled with explosives. 

“The flooding tunnels are over that ridge. We’ll get in that way.” Finn informs Han and Chewie.

“What was your job when you were based here?”

“Sanitation.” Finn says without a second thought.

Han then grabs him by the shoulder pad of his jacket, pulling him back to face him. “Sanitation? Then how do you know how to disable the shields?”

He shrugs. “I don’t. I’m just here to get Rey.”

“People are counting on us.” Han loudly mutters. “The galaxy is counting on us.”

“Solo, we’ll figure it out.” His mind raced. “We’ll use the Force.”

“That’s not how the Force works.” Chewie then moan talks, shivering. “ Oh, really?” Han looks to him. “You’re cold?” 

Elektra gazes up at the sky, seeing the sun being drained and she furrowed her brow, putting on her cold demeanor and started charging straight towards the tunnels. 

“Wait, Bre!”

“El!” 

Han and Finn both shout for her, running after. 

“We only have fifteen minutes!” She shouts back. 

“How so you know?” Finn yells up at her. 

“I just do!”

In the base, an officer finds Kylo, and gives him the report. “Sir, she was not found in hangar 718 but all troops are on alert.”

“Put every hangar on lockdown. She’s going to try to steal a ship to esc—” He then turns his head, sensing something. Something familiar. And it was there with them. “Han Solo.” 

The Transport Compartment opens, revealing a Stormtrooper standing there and he eyes Chewie with his bowcaster pointing at him. “Hey!” He fumbles for his blaster but Chewie shoots first, the Trooper flying back and landing on the floor dead. 

Chewie steps down, hiding the Trooper’s body while Elektra, Finn, and Han all peer around, wary. “The longer we’re here, less luck we’re going to have. The shields?”

“I have an idea about that.” Finn remarks. 

Captain Phasma was heading down the one hall all by herself until she was t-boned hard and fast by Elektra. Chewie comes, helping her get Phasma up and transferred her to a corridor, where Finn and Han stood. 

Finn moved in front of her. “Remember me?”

“FN-2187.”

“Not anymore. The name’s Finn, and I’m in charge.” He smirked, getting cocky and having fun with saying that he was in charge. “I’m in charge now, Phasma. I’m in charge.”

“Bring it down.” Han hushes him. “Bring it down.”

Finn then loses his smile, nodding and whispers, “Yeah.” He then clears his throat, eyeing Phasma. “Follow me.” 

Rey runs down a long, glossy hall, taking cover in an alcove, still holding onto the Trooper Guard’s rifle. Down a long, perpendicular walkway she sees a stone, steel wall and runs for it. At the end, she sees a vast atrium with a failing free drop off, the white pill-light design descending a hundred feet at most. She looks to her right, the end walkway is an open hangar door revealing a ton of TIE fighters that were parked outside. She had a plan but the problem between her and the ship that she wants to steal is a group of Stormtroopers that were in conversation. 

Behind her, another group of Stormtroopers comes and her mind races. She throws the rifle strap over her shoulder and head, running down and across the walkway, climbing down the side. Her fingertips just disappearing over the ledge as the group approaches. Rey holds on carefully as the guards walk off, peering down at the death drop below her but her eyes catch something else; a handle from the wall. She brainstorms, strenuously cross climbing to the service hatch. She pulls on the lever, the hatch opening, hissing steam and she enters; closing the hatch behind her. 

“You want me to blast that bucket off your head?” Finn aims his blaster at her while she was sitting at the workstation, Han and Chewie doing the same while Elektra just sat down. “Lower the shields.”

“You’re making a big mistake.”

“No.” Elektra speaks up. “You are for not listening to what Finn says. So do it. Lower the shields.” Chewie growls, agreeing with Elektra. Phasma hits a few buttons, the controls beeping and the message for the shields disabling appears on screen. 

Finn then lowers his blaster, turning to Han who was shutting the door. “Solo, if this works, we’re not going to have a lot of time to find Rey.” 

“Don’t worry kid, we won’t leave here without her.” 

The shields were disabled and Phasma stands from the workstation, glaring at Finn and Elektra. “You can’t be so stupid as to think this will be easy.” She replied venomously. “My troops will storm this block and kill you all.”

“Is that the best threat you can do?” Elektra asks, being a smart alec. “Because if it is, you need to get more original.” Phasma was fuming, Elektra could sense it.

“I agree.” Finn steps up, aiming his blaster right under her chin and gazes over his shoulder at Elektra and Han. “What do we do with her?” 

“Is there a garbage chute?” Han inquires. “Trash compactor?”

Phasma eyes him and Finn smiles. “Yeah, there is.” 

Back at D’Qar, an officer shouts to Leia that the defense system for Starkiller Base was down. C-3PO cheers and Leia was relieved, telling Statura to give the authorization to Poe. Poe received the call, calling in the blue and red squad, telling them to follow his lead as they dropped out of lightspeed and headed straight forwards the planet. General Hux witnesses the ships all coming down, firing at the oscillator through the giant windows. He turns to the First Order Officer, telling him to dispatch all of their squadrons and he nods, going off to do so. 

“Direct hit!” A pilot laughs. 

“But no damage.” 

Poe then speaks over the radio. “Yeah, we gotta keep hitting it! Another bombing run! Remember, when that sun is gone, that weapon will be ready to fire! But as long as there’s light, we got a chance.” In the back, where BB-8 was, he chirps and Poe is alert; investigating and seeing TIE fighters. “Guys, we got a lot of company!”

Han, Finn, Elektra, and Chewie take cover, Chewie beginning to take a few explosives out of the bag. Blast doors were nearby. “We’ll use the charges to blow that blast door. I’ll go in and draw fire, but I’m gonna need cover.” 

“You sure you’re up for this?” 

Finn shakes his head. “Hell no. I’ll go in and try to find Rey.” Elektra turns, looking to Finn but in the back window she seen a hatch opening and waited a moment to see Rey coming on out. She got the biggest smile on her face, seeing the girl being as clever as her and found herself heading up to the window. Han sees her, diverting his stare from Finn to see his daughter watching Rey as she climbed up to the main level. “There’s an access tunnel that’ll lead—”

Han starts pointing with his chin to Elektra who was behind him. 

“Why are you doing that?” Finn inspects him. “Why are you doing this?” He then does what Han was doing. “I’m trying to come up with a plan.” Han taps him with the end of his pistol blaster, pointing at the window where Elektra was and Finn finally rotates around, seeing Elektra staring out at Rey who hoisted herself up on the walkway. 

Chewie was filled with relief and so was Han, because the plan that Finn had was suicide. Elektra was the one who went running first, leading the way and the boys went after.

Rey had her rifle in hand, creeping around and peering; keeping an eye out for any Stormtroopers and as she turned around a corner, she bumped into Elektra, Finn, Han, and Chewie. They all yelp in surprise, calming down once they realized who they were all facing. 

“Are you alright?” Han places his hand up to her, letting her know that she could take an easy breath and lower her weapon. 

Rey was flabbergasted, dropping her rifle at her side. “Yeah.” 

“What happened?” Elektra asks. 

Finn then counters with, “Did he hurt you?” 

She just glances back and forth between the two. “Elektra, Finn, what are you two doing here?”

“We came back for you.” Elektra tells her. 

Rey then felt herself getting emotional; that’s all she ever wanted, someone to return and come back for her. And here the someones were, Elektra and Finn. Chewie speaks and since Finn didn’t speak wookie, he looks to Rey. “What’d he say?” 

She then stares at her two friends, nearly in tears, a small smile on her lips. “That it was both your idea.” Rey then leans forwards, giving Elektra a hug first. “Thank you.” She whispers, letting her go and gave Finn one as well. “Thank you both.”

Finn awkwardly smiles but that was his nature. “How did you get away?” 

“I can’t explain it.” She says, letting him go. “And you wouldn’t believe it.” 

“The Force.” Elektra tells her, giving a small nod. “You used the Force.” 

Han then came over, interrupting their reunion. “Escape now, talk later.” 

The five of them all dispersed, heading towards the Transport Compartment and Finn pressed a button to move to the top floor; to leave. At the top, the doors opening, they hurried out but paused to see lopsided battle. Too many First Order fighters and not enough Resistance. 

“They’re in trouble. We can’t leave.” Han sighs. 

“Dad, we didn’t use any of the explosives.” Elektra sideyes him and he returns the exchange. “I think we should save their skins.” 

Heading back in, Han, Elektra, and Chewie went their own way to the oscillator with the bag of explosives while Finn and Rey went on their own to the Junction Station. At the Maintenance Hatch, they seen three Stormtroopers and began firing. Chewie takes out the one in the middle with his bowcaster and Elektra gets the one on the left while Han got the one on the right. 

Running in from a parked snowspeeder, Rey opens a service hatch with Finn behind her, her leaning down and reaches into the mechanics of the place. She pulls on device out which unlocks the one door for Han, Elektra, and Chewie. They enter in, seeing the columns of the place and Elektra peers down over the railing. 

“We’ll set the charges at every other column.” 

Chewie then speaks, moaning. 

Han then reconsiders. “You’re right. That’s a better idea.” He then checks his detonator for the explosives before looking back to Chewie. “You take the top. I’ll go down below.” 

“What do I do?” Elektra steps back from the railing, eyeing her father. 

“Denator.” He hands her the small device and she holds it firmly. “You go with Chewie. And we’ll meet back here.” 

“Why?” Elektra lifts her head, staring at him. “Why not with you?” Han doesn’t answer. “Dad?” 

“Chewie, just keep her safe. Alright.” 

“Wait, no. Dad!” She loudly whispers, scolding him as her eyebrows furrowed. 

“You’ll be closer to the top. If something happens, you can make an easier escape.” Han informs her. “I need you to be safe.” 

“Dad,” 

“Bre, I’m sorry.” He apologizes, placing his hands on her shoulder and his eyes were so sympathetic that it pierced her just by looking at them. They started to get glassy, him holding back tears. “I’m sorry that I wasn’t perfect, and that I was hardly ever there for you. I loved you, and Ben so much. I just wanted you to know that.” 

“ _Dad,_ ” she begins again, feeling her breathing getting deeper. 

“Your mother, you, and Ben, were the best things to have ever happened to a scoundrel like me.” He then moves forwards, placing a kiss on her forehead and left it linger for a few seconds before moving away. “Now, go.” He gives her his best smile, hurrying down the ramp to get on the lower level. 

Elektra watches him go, stuck in place until Chewie calls to her. She looks to him, back to Han, then she knows that she needs to go but hates to do so. Finally, her knees unbuckle and she twists, following Chewie who handed her a few explosives to plant around. 

Up the ladder, Chewie and Elektra climbed, planting the magnetic explosives and pressed the buttons on them to get ready to detonate. Down below, Han did the same, checking every time to make sure that no one was coming. 

Near the main entrance of the oscillator, a squad of Stormtroopers snap to attention as Kylo strides right past them with two other Troopers. He enters, staring out over the railing where Elektra stood and peered upwards, scanning the structure, sensing that they were there. 

“Find them.” He orders, the Stormtroopers splitting up. 

Outside of the oscillator, the Snowspeeder comes to a stop and Finn and Rey get out, both stop for a moment, looking to the sky to see that the sun was nearly gone. They hurry towards the one ladder that was outside, climbing up it to enter the structure undetected. 

Han finishes setting a charge and is about to move on when he hears something, concealing himself behind a wide, vertical support. He peeks around the edge and his whole demeanor changes as he sees his son heading towards the railing, being filled with a torturous storm of feelings. Kylo Ren turns onto a flat bridge that bisects the open space, and this was Han’s opportunity to escape but Leia’s words echo through his mind. Reluctantly, he makes a decision and moves out, going to the edge of the catwalk. 

He calls out, strongly. “Ben!” 

The clank of Kylo’s boots halt, him standing still as a Stormtrooper sets eyes on Han, aiming his rifle at him. Chewie and Elektra freeze as well, peering down at the bridge and Elektra felt her lungs tighten. “Dad.” She whispers, her eyes wide and her one hand gripping the railing. 

“Han Solo.” Kylo’s distorted voice comes through his mask. “I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time. Was Elektra happy to see you?” 

From above, Elektra and Chewie heard a door opening, looking up to see Rey and Finn coming in, the light from the opened hatch illuminating Kylo and Han as he walked directly into the beam of foggy white. They all watched like a crowd, seeing the meeting of a father and an estranged son. 

“Take off that mask. You don’t need it.”

“What do you think you’ll see if I do?”

Han stops, studying him. “The face of my son.” 

Kylo then moves his hands up, unlatching his mask which hisses and pulls it off. Han is jolted, this was the first time he’s ever seen him as a young man and for Elektra, she was so used to the mask that she had forgotten what he looked like. 

“Your son is gone. He was weak and foolish, like his father. So I destroyed him.” 

Han continues with his stern approach. “That’s what Snoke wants you to believe. But it’s not true. My son is alive.” 

“No. The Supreme Leader is wise.” 

“Snoke is using you for your power. When he gets what he wants, he’ll crush you. And Bre.” Han stops and he can see his son’s facial expression change for a split second. “You know it’s true.”

Kylo hesitates. Somehow, he _does_ know it. “It’s too late.” 

“No it’s not. Leave here with me, with Bre. Come home. We miss you.”

For the first time, Kylo was truly conflicted; he wanted to cry, the tears came to his stoic eyes but he tried to refrain from it. “I’m being torn apart.” His voice breaks and Elektra felt herself leaning more towards the railing, anxious to see what was to happen next because for this moment, she was finally seeing her brother—her _real_ brother, Ben Solo—once again. “I want to be free of this pain. I know what I have to do but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it. Will you help me?” 

Han takes one more step closer. “Yes. Anything.” 

Kylo drops his helmet next to him and unholsters his lightsaber, slowly extending it out to

Han, within a foot of his chest. Han almost can’t believe it, but atlast, he reaches forward and gets a grip on the handle. The moment seems to last forever. Just then, the last beam of light streaming through the open hatch vanishes, Finn, Rey, and Elektra all knowing that the sun was gone and the weapon was now fully charged, facing the bridge once more. 

Han holds their gaze, recognizing how his son’s eyes fill with darkness once again and his hold on the lightsaber intensified. Before anyone knew it, even Han, Kylo ignites the lightsaber. The fiery blade shoots outright through Han’s chest and back. “ _Dad!_ ” Elektra’s voice rips through the air, cutting at it like a knife as it echoes off the walls as Chewie roars in grief. Rey was in tears and Finn was panting, shaking his head somberly. 

“Thank you.” Kylo utters to Han, pushing the blade more into him before pulling it out. In Han’s last moments, he stared at his son, lifting his left hand up to cradle the side of his face before slanting off to the side and falling off the bridge into the abyss below. 

Leia had sensed his death from the Force, feeling it instantly, sitting; devastated. 

Kylo is somehow weakened by his wicked act. Himself horrified what he had done. His shock is broken only when Chewie roars once more, this time in rage, aiming the bowcaster at Kylo’s side and shoots him directly which causes him kneel in pain. Chewie then began firing at the nearby Stormtroopers, protecting Elektra who was still stunned, unresponsive, nonmoving. Her eyes just frozen in place, keeping on her brother who was wounded. Above, Rey and Finn began shooting as well to help give cover. 

Kylo peers up in his pain, eyes searching and landing his sister, seeing how she found her strength to push herself through her personal sorrow and withdrew her pistol blaster. She began firing at the Troopers, making her daring escape with Chewie and at the last second, she turns and sees Kylo. She draws a deep breath, her nostrils flaring up as she raises her left hand that held the detonator and her thumb presses the button without any second thought. 

One, two, three, four, five, six—six orange, booming explosions rock the structure making the walls cave in. Stormtroopers are lifted off their feet, crashing into the floor and flying off the sides of the railing, falling down below. Kylo then catches sight of Finn and Rey, standing up in his full height and heads for them in long strides. Rey urges for Finn to leave with her and he does, turning tail; the both of them heading for the snowy forest. 

Back at the Resistance Base, Ackbar turns to Leia and everyone else that was keeping tabs on the mission. “The oscillator’s been damaged but is still functional.” 

“Admiral,” Tabala remarks, her face full of worry, “their weapon will fire in two minutes.”


	5. The Light and The Dark

In the distance, the oscillator is ablaze and fractured from the explosives while Finn and Rey were running straight into the bare tree forest. “The Falcon’s this way!” He leads. 

“What about Chewie and Elektra?!” Rey calls up to him. 

“They’ll catch up!” 

The two kept on running, the snow falling in flakes; light and soft but the beauty of it wasn’t enough to wash away what they had just witnessed. They both had an incredible amount of emotion surging through them, giving him energy to race through the trunks of the trees until they heard a lightsaber humming. They both stop, out of breath, seeing Kylo standing in the snow; he had waiting for them and it confirmed their fear. There was no running from him. 

He was a still figure amidst the gusts of wind and snow, about thirty feet away from Finn and Rey. “We’re not done yet.” 

Rey snarls. “You’re a monster!”

“Han Solo can’t save you.” He remarks, balling up his left hand into a fist and hits his side where Chewie had shot him which earned him a strange look from Finn and Rey. 

Rey examines the wound, seeing that he was bleeding in the snow and she breathes heavily. With a quick motion, she lifts the rifle, about to shoot him but Kylo was faster, throwing out his left hand to her which knocked the rifle from her hands and she flew back high into the air. 

“Rey!” Finn shouts as she lets out a scream, whacking into a tree and falls hard into a mound of snow, dazed, hurt. 

Elektra had turned, hearing the wails of her friends and Chewie notices how she stopped walking. “I have a bad feeling about this.” She mutters. He speaks to her and she returns his stare. “You go and get to the Falcon, I need to help them.” 

Chewie replies in his wookispeak, “Han told me to keep you safe.” 

“I know, I know but . . I can’t just leave them, Chewie. Get the Falcon, and find us. Please.” She begs and he understands, heading off and Elektra watches as he leaves. She then turns, following the direction of the sound that came from.

Finn throws his blaster off, running to Rey’s aid and kneels down in concern. “Rey. Rey!” He holds her head in his lap, trying to wake her but she was just limp, appearing lifeless in his arms. “Oh, no. No, no. Rey.” 

Kylo steps up from behind, waving his lightsaber around which hums menacingly which makes Finn fuel with anger. “Traitor!” He screams at the boy who was a few years younger than him. 

Finn softly rests Rey’s head down, standing up as he pulled Luke’s lightsaber and faces Kylo, igniting it which casts a blue glow onto his face. Upon seeing it, it astonished Kylo and he holds out his own lightsaber, pointing to it. 

“That lightsaber.” He snarls. “It belongs to me.” 

“Come get it.” 

Finn defends, yelling and charges straight towards him and Kylo swings up his saber, both of their blades colliding, crackling as sparks flew. Kylo swings forwards, Finn bending back, dodging it as he brought up the lightsaber from behind and went to bring it down on him but he blocks it effortlessly. Finn does it again but this again, Kylo presses his blade upwards which throws Finn back and off balance. He took the moment in quick, lurching forwards and swinging his fiery saber around for two side attacks but Finn blocks until Kylo brings his saber straight down on his and knocks Finn straight onto his back in the snow from the amount of force.

Elektra runs up on the scene, seeing Rey who was still passed out in the snow and dives down next to her. She shakes her gently, seeing if she was responsive and glances up to see her brother wincing, hitting himself in the side where Chewie had shot him and Finn laying on the ground with Luke’s lightsaber in hand. 

Finn gets up and Kylo senses it, whipping himself around as Finn yells, swinging the blade wildly out in front of him, bringing it downwards but Kylo moves out of the way; turning and waves his lightsaber around in a fashion that said, “Are you even trying”? He steps up, their blades clashing once then twice before Kylo does a spin and Finn backs up as much as he could and brought up his lightsaber to block the blow. 

Kylo then swings, their blades lock and the energy crackles. The two boys were close, Finn grunting to try and use all of his muscles to press against Kylo but he was too strong, pinning him up against a tree. Kylo then pressed harder, the small little blade on the side of the handle touches his shoulder, burning through the jacket and reaching his skin. Finn yelps in pain, hearing the sound of his flesh sizzling. 

Rey finally awakes, seeing Finn and Kylo fighting but then peers to see Elektra checking up on her. “Rey,” she heard Elektra’s voice, muffled and echoing. “Rey, can you hear me? You alright? Can you stand?” 

“Think so.” She grumbles, groaning from her head pounding and Elektra helps her up. “Finn . .” 

“Yeah.” Elektra nods her off. “Rey, I need you to listen to me. Okay?” 

Kylo backs off of Finn, bringing his lightsaber back down but Finn ducks, fleeting from the tree and Kylo strikes the trunk. Finn straightens out, blocking another hit from Kylo and turned into offense. He finally gets a hit in, grazing his left arm and he felt proud of himself. Kylo, however, he became enraged, and charges, their weapons pounding and creating sparks. He then redirects the way that they clashed their sabers, making Luke’s fly out of Finn’s hands and rightside up in the snow as the blade turned off. 

Kylo then throws a punch into Finn’s face and as he spun around, he took his saber and slashes up the entirety of his back. Finn groans, landing face down into the snow, defeated. He then deactivates his lightsaber, staring off where Luke’s lightsaber had disappeared to. Suddenly, he reaches out for it, trying to use the Force to retrieve it. The lightsaber vibrates in the snow, wanting to take off but doesn’t so he tries harder; focusing all of his energy on getting it. After a moment Kylo eases up, growing impatient and gestures, increasing his power and grunts. 

The lightsaber finally files out of the snow, bullets towards Kylo but it goes straight past him; almost hitting him in the face in the process but he maneuvers out of the way by leaning backwards. He follows it with his eyes, seeing it land directly into his sister’s right hand with a powerful clank. Kylo was utterly stunned, eyeing his twin sister, not believing his own eyes. He never knew that she was like him—that she was Force sensitive. He knew that their bloodline was filled with raw power but he just figured that it had skipped his sister like how some family traits do. She never held a lightsaber let alone used one, she never used the Force, not even once; so her being this powerful, having this raw talent, made him puzzled; it even had Elektra terrified as her wary eyes just glances down to the saber then back at her brother. 

Holding it with both hands, Elektra ignites the lightsaber that had belonged to their grandfather Anakin and their uncle Luke for the first time, her eyes blazing. Kylo then ignites his, waving it around in a manner where he didn’t want to fight but rather, intimidate his sister. But without using the Force, he could tell that she was ready to duel and that this was something that was long overdue from everything that he has put her through. 

She points the saber out forwards, bringing it back and wields it like how she used to wield sticks when they were younger, pretending that they were swords. With a shaky breath and filled with a small amount of confidence and grief, and anger, she charges at her brother and he bats her lightsaber away in defense. She then swings it around, bringing it down on him but he blocks it, running off and Elektra chases after. She swings, missing him but manages to cut through a tree and splitting it in half. 

Kylo brings down his blade but she blocks, backing away and charges again. Kylo dodges as he goes to swing but she ducks, him hitting and cutting a tree. She spins around and so does he, them both missing the other’s blade as the tree toppled over and hit the ground. They both stand, facing one another and he was alarmed by her innate skill but his pride began taking over, him twirling his saber around in his hand but she stops him from performing his trick. He then huffs, stormily and raises his blade above his head, bringing it down on hers. 

“We just lost R-1.” Niv Lek reports through the radio for the rest of the Resistance pilots to hear, including Poe as they fly through the space and fire at the First Order squadrons. 

“We’re overwhelmed.” Jess reports. “What do we do? It isn’t working.”

Yolo Ziff peers down, seeing the explosion. “Black Leader,” he calls to Poe, “there’s a brand new

hole in that oscillator. Looks like our friends got in.” 

“Red Four! Red Six! Cover us!” Poe orders. “Everybody else, hit the target hard! Give it everything you got!” 

The X-wings all dive, zipping straight for the oscillator and begin blasting at it while others fought off the First Order. Piloting through was difficult, the defense firing back which had him all pivoting out of the way. 

“I need some help here! I need some help!” Poe shouts into his radio headset. 

“Coming in!” Bastian lowers himself down, firing. 

Jess then look off to the side, seeing a cannon aiming at Ello Asty’s ship. “Watch out!” 

The cannon fires, direct target on the craft and it sparks in a fiery explosion. “I’m hit!” He yells just before his ship crashes down into the ground, tumbling before exploding. 

Poe sees it happen, feeling himself getting upset and didn’t want anyone else to get hurt. “All teams,” he announces, “I’m going in. Pull up and cover me.” 

“Copy that, Black Leader. Good luck, Poe.” Niv Lek responds, doing as told and pulls up with Jess, Yolo Ziff, Bastian, and the others. 

In the control room of the Starkiller Base, a technician informs General Hux that the weapon would be at full capacity in thirty seconds. Hux telling him to prepare it for fire.

Still flying through the breach as a TIE fighter was on his tail, Poe steers, rotating his ship, entering the small space and loses the fighter. He fires repeatedly, the structure beginning to crater as fire gushes from the hits. He blasts a few more rounds, hitting all the necessary spots before exiting through the gap and leaving with triumph. The Resistance Fleet follow, flying overhead as the ground rumbles and the oscillator erupts, spitting debris and fire. Snow from all around the area lifts and is blown back from the violent release of energy. From underneath, there’s more explosions, creating a chain reaction that travels through the planet. 

Elektra bends back, just barely missing her brother’s blade and grunts as he brings it down from above and she blocks it. He goes again, determination on his face, and she stops him again by barricading herself with the saber. He then tries a different technique, her already knowing it and stops him again; the two twins swinging their weapons downwards and clashing their blades together. Elektra then tries to make a move, missing him and he returns the attack, him missing her as well. Suddenly, Kylo brandishes his lightsaber violently before him and Elektra runs backwards through the narrow, snowy mountain pass that they had wandered into. 

She jumps up, scaling the jagged rocks and she just jumps in time, Kylo striking his lightsaber where she was just standing and grunts. He then moves quick, seeing her feet and takes his saber to the other side, hitting nothing again as she jumped across to the higher ridge of the path. Kylo treks after, running and Elektra spins back around fast, her blocking and taking a stab at where Finn had nicked him. Her brother retreats and she dips under a fallen tree that was leaning against another, him going back towards her and she slices at the tree, to hopefully hit him and make him stay away.

Kylo avoids being hit, still pursuing his little sister by an hour. She steps back as he steps forwards, their lightsabers humming, the blue and yellow-red colors illuminating the flurries of snow. Elektra was nervous, studying every little movement that her brother was doing, observing how he hits his wounded side. He was doing it because he had learned from Snoke that pain can make a Jedi stronger and faster, and that sent a chill down her spine. She took her stance again, bringing the lightsaber up to her face, pointing it outwards and jabs but Kylo is brisk, bringing his lightsaber up to meet hers with a sturdy stop. He moves it back, batting at her blade and Elektra stumbles backwards. She flees, running away from her brother, nearly tripping, to put distance in between them. 

Elektra’s mind began racing, her heart beat pounding in her ears. She was conflicted and she knew that Kylo was too; they weren’t fighting each other out of hate, they were fighting each other out of love. To anyone, that wouldn’t make sense but it didn’t have to, because it did to Elektra and Kylo. 

She makes the first move, Kylo batting the blade away with his, twirling his wrist and the saber around before playing offense. Every blow Elektra tried to block just knocked her away and made her draw backwards, deeper into the forest. Elektra gathers up her might, trying to poke at his shoulder again but he thrusts upwards with his lightsaber, them connecting and spewing sparks. Her feet fumble about, trying to find placing, blocking his one hit as she felt the ground shake violently and trees began falling over. Elektra glances back in a hurry, seeing how much room she had to retreat and focuses back on her brother who still tracked her movements with deadless eyes. 

She tightens her grip on the handle of the lightsaber, her hands producing sweat as she tries to ward him off and blocks another attack. Elektra turns, sprinting, and rotates back, this time only one handing the saber and slashes at her brother but he hits back which sent a forceful _ting_ throughout her arm. She shouts, her hand that wields the lightsaber drops, the end of the blade grazing across the snow; melting it. 

Kylo then stabs forwards at an angle, trying to hit her side like how he had been hit. Elektra yelps, double handing the handle of her lightsaber again and whacks it away from her body, clashing their blades together and moving outwards. Kylo gets the best of her, pressing hard on his blade and storms forwards quick. Their connecting blades just inches away from Elektra’s face and she leans the upper half of her body back to try and avoid them; the muscles in her biceps aching from holding her position. A colossal chunk of the forest right behind Elektra break away, falling down, and creating a brand new cliff that she was now bordering; three steps and she would slip. 

Kylo presses harder on his blade, clenching his teeth together and Elektra moves up her hands to get a better stance, still fending him off as their lightsabers crackle ferociously. She strains, gnashing her teeth, watching the section where her and his lightsaber connected; energy pulsating and vibrating. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He stares down at her struggling face, her eyes filled with fear. He felt bad, he didn’t want to do this but the anger had taken ahold. They told each other everything and trusted one another, why was _this_ different? Kylo wanted to know desperately. 

He tries to peer into her mind but he hit a mental wall like how he had with Rey and he was startled. If his sister had never used the Force before, how was she able to resist him now? It reminded him of Rey in the cell. He tries harder, his eyes squinting to figure out what she was thinking—what her answer was for the question. But there was nothing. It boils his blood, him adding more pressure onto their sabers and Elektra winces. 

“Why can’t I see into your mind?” He demands. “How are you resisting?” 

Elektra doesn’t answer, her knees buckling as she felt herself shrink to be closer to the ground, her brother towering over and her being in his shadow. From this action, Kylo understands that it’s just not about him but about her, too. She started this and it was only right for him to give her the answer that she was looking for before she could give him his. 

“You need to understand, I _had_ to do it. We were never meant to be Solos—and we never were. This, this is what we were meant to be. Who we really are! _Rens_.” He remarks. “It's just us now. We’re stronger together than apart in the Force.” 

The Force. Elektra thought back to what Maz had told her and closes her eyes, feeling for it and calms her breathing while Kylo studies her. She senses it flowing through her brother, through the lightsabers that still hums and crackles like a homemade fire. She felt it through the trees, in the ground, surging through her feet and into her. And that’s when she felt it, the light. 

Her eyes open, focusing on her brother for him to see that she was centered and fortified. She released her left hand from the handle and held it out to where the end of Kylo’s horizontal blade was, opening her hand suddenly. Right then, Kylo felt the end of his lightsaber being constricted as if she was actually holding it with her hand; she was using the Force to hold it off. He felt himself getting upset—this was cheating! His sister was outsmarting him and he felt that anger boiling inside of him once again. 

She lets out a warrior’s yell, propelling her right arm that held her lightsaber up in a swift movement and Kylo is thrown back, slipping off to the side but catches himself. Elektra maneuvers away from the ledge, standing tall and locking eyes on him. He goes, making a move and she clashes their blades, making single handed swipes back and forth, hitting his gnarly, spitting lightsaber with immense force. Again and again Elektra went, not stopping and hardly giving her brother anytime to thoroughly think, only to block out of desperateness as she now pressed him back through the forest like how he had done with her.

Elektra then swipes at his side, catching the end of his cape and nicking him, her lightsaber crackles as the material burns away. Kylo grunts from her hitting where Chewie had shot him, tripping down into his knees and holding his side. The pain rushes back in, him struggling to stand, groaning in the process. Back on his staggering feet, he yells, trying his best effort to swing his lightsaber at her but he misses and she jabs hers forwards, getting him in the shoulder where Finn had gotten him. Kylo takes steps backwards, his feet dragging to the point that he almost trips but maintains balance, scuffling. Elektra raises her lightsaber above her head and behind her back, charging forwards at her brother and lets out that warrior yell once more, bringing it straight down and once he blocked it—as planned—she lifts her right foot up and kicks him in the stomach. 

Down into the snow he goes, landing on his back and coughing. He then gets up slowly but hastily, groaning as Elektra circled him like a vulture with prey. Kylo then swipes, Elektra blocking then grabs his right wrist that held his lightsaber and he does the same; taking a hold of her right with his left. It was a dance between forces. A sister and a brother, the light and the dark. They both struggle but Elektra is the one that wins, forcing her brother’s hand that held his lightsaber into the ground with grunting effort. The snow sizzles, smoke billowing up and electricity crackling as a few embers flew from the blade. Kylo yells through clenched teeth, trying to escape his sister’s grasp while he was watching his lightsaber—his prized possession—being destroyed. And instantly, as it had appeared, the anger just vanished, draining Kylo’s face and leaving his jaw relaxed. His eyes widening with sadness and he was stricken with unease, the realization hitting him that Elektra had helped him build this lightsaber, and now she was damaging it. He didn’t want it to be broken, he wanted it safe—he wanted their bond as twins to be safe but from what he has done, he knew it was too late. 

Elektra tears her right arm from Kylo in his moment of worry, bringing her blade down on his which deactivates and flies into the snow. He whips his head to look at her and she back hands him with her blade, right in the face. He screams, shooting his head backwards and his body follows after in a heap. She huffs, his nostrils flaring as he sits up and reveals his newly scarred face to her. He was fearful, just staring up at his little sister and with that look, Elektra knew that she had just showcased her own small touch of the dark side. She gulps, her chest rising and falling and there’s a deep rumbling from underneath them. Before her, the ground cracks and splits between her and Kylo; it then shifts, them being separated. Forty feet away from each other, Elektra gives her brother one last look as her eyes filled with regret and she deactivates the lightsaber and places it on her belt before running away to go and retrieve Finn. 

“Supreme Leader.” Hux runs into the assembly room that began crumbling, heartsick and horrified, staring up at the hologram of Snoke. “The fuel cells have ruptured. The collapse of the planet has begun.”

Snoke takes in the news. Furious, desolate, and all knowing. “Leave the base at once and come to me with Kylo Ren.” He then leans forwards, grim. “It is time to complete his training.”

Finn was still laying on his stomach, near death, not far from where the earth had sunk in. Elektra finds him, kneeling and rolls him over. “Finn.” She touches his pulse, feeling how it was barely still there, her eyes catching sight of his cauterized, yet fatal, wound. “Finn.” She softly sniffles, having already lost her father, her brother, and a part of herself; she couldn’t bear losing Finn too. A tear falls from her eye, gliding down her cheek and dripping off her chin and onto Finn. She then rests her head on his chest, sniffling, and just stayed there. 

Trees collapse, the planet dying and Elektra expected her and Finn to go with it. But she overhears thrusters and blinding white lights shine through the barren trees, having her gaze up to see the Millennium Falcon being piloted by Chewie and Rey. She brokenly smiles, happy to see them and was filled with hope. Chewie roars, calling her name and they land the ship, opening the cargo door and rushing out. Chewie picks up Finn, taking him on board and Rey made sure to ask if Elektra was alright. Elektra nods, whispering a “yeah” and nothing more. 

Off they went, the Falcon flying as the planet was breaking apart. Poe pilots behind them, radioing in. “All teams! I got eyes on them!” The pilots cheer, excited and follow after the infamous craft. The planet bursts then implodes, the sunlight that was harbored within it seeps out and rebirths the sun, restoring light to the corner of the galaxy. “Our job’s done here. Let’s go home!” In lightspeed, they all travel. 

D’Qar welcomed everyone back with cheers and shouts of gratitude. Chewie had rushed Finn out, Rey and Elektra following after as Medical Personnel and Officers, meet them. “He has a heartbeat, careful.” Elektra informs them, her voice borderline ordering. Poe sees the situation, running over and motions to Elektra that he’ll go with with Chewie and the medics to make sure that he was being taken care of. 

Elektra then felt the one thing she dreaded, gazing over to see her mother, Leia. Rey sees her, already knowing who she was from having heard Han and Elektra speak about her, and from rummaging through Kylo’s head. She softly places her hand on Elektra’s back, the girls sadly eyeing the older woman. 

Leia moves up to Elektra and the closer she got, the more Elektra broke down emotionally. Leia took her daughter’s face into her hands, seeing how the painted mask that she wore was starting to rub off from her tears. No words needed to be shared, she knew that Han tried to get through to Ben and she knew that Elektra wanted to do more than just push the detonator, that she blames herself for what happened to their family. She takes Elektra into her arms, a mother’s loving embrace and the flood of tears went. Elektra clung to her mother, whimpering and sobbing into her shoulder. Leia just held her tight, letting her cry her heart out. Rey stands back, watching the two and felt her own heart break for the two women. Elektra sniffles, her tears stopping after a good minute and she lets her mother go allowing Rey to gradually step up to greet her. Leia takes her into a tight hug, grateful that she was safe and Rey found herself getting emotional.

Everyone had settled down, mourning their losses. Elektra was sitting by Finn’s bedside, Rey next to her and she reaches over, holding her hand for comfort. Elektra gives it a small squeeze, her eyes focusing on Finn before drifting off and seeing BB-8 rolling over to R2-D2, the long dormant droid, that he had uncovered before they left for Starkiller Base. She silently excuses herself, walking over and eyes R2-D2, the last time she’s seen him was the night that Kylo and her left Luke’s Jedi Temple. She kneels, examining the droid and BB-8 chirps to her. 

“Yeah, it’s my Uncle Luke’s.” She mutters, placing her hand on top of R2-D2. “Learned how to speak Astromech because of this guy. First droid I ever got to know, the coolest one, too.” 

BB-8 chirps. 

“Besides you, of course.” She stifles a laugh, eyeing R2-D2 over again. “Miss you, buddy.” She then stands, slipping her hand off his dome head and steps away but stops once she heard a stir from behind; BB-8 chirping inquisitively then excitedly. 

C-3PO heads over, the three of them watching as R2-D2 comes to life and beeps. “R2-D2! You’ve come back.” 

He then beeps excitedly and Elektra listens. “You have the another piece?” She then thinks, shaking her head in disbelief. “Of course, you would.” 

“Why are you now working?” C-3PO questions him and R2-D2 beeps. “How dare you call me that.” He then whacks the side of the droid, him beeping once more. 

“Mom!” Elektra turns, going to search for her. “Mom!” 

Leia hears her call, glancing over her shoulder to see her daughter coming over with BB-8, C-P3O, and R2-D2 following after. Without a word, she understands and the Resistance group gathers around, including Chewie, Rey, and Poe. R2-D2 moves to the center of the room, projecting a navigational map hologram with a specific missing chunk. BB-8 rolls to Poe, asking him to hand him the ancient data device that Lor San Tekka had given them from the base computer. 

“Alright, buddy, hold on.” He goes retrieving it and inserts it back inside the BB unit, seeing as he travels over and projects his own map and shrinks it down to size, fitting it into the missing area of R2-D2’s; uniting. 

Everyone reacts, astonished. “Oh! The map! It’s complete!” C-3PO replies, amazed. 

“Luke.” Leia whispers with hope, eyeing it with glistening eyes. 

C-3PO leans to R2-D2, padding his back. “Oh, my dear friend. I’ve missed you.” 

It was a new day, Elektra waking up, doing her daily routine and stares at her reflection to see how her face was still marked with Massassi blood; faded but still there. She sighs heavily, hearing someone knocking on the side panel where the curtain hung to give her some privacy. Going over, she peeks out to see Poe with his hands filled with clothes that Leia gave him to give to her. She thanks him, grabbing them carefully and draws the curtain back and inspects the outfit. There was an undershirt which was light grey, a long sleeve sweater that was dark brown, and a pair of dark blue jeans. Automatically, she could tell—could sense—that they used to be her father’s. Her mother must’ve tailored them to her size somehow. 

Elektra changes, putting on the clothes and took her hair out of the web of braids and combs through with her fingers. She separates the top half of her hair, pinning it up and braided her bangs back into a dutch bun to honor her mother; like how she always done with her hairstyles. She then grabs her belt, putting it on and grabs Luke’s lightsaber and her pistol blaster before heading out. 

Over in a I.C.U POD, Finn was unconscious, his fate remains uncertain but the rhythmic beating of his heart gave comfort. Rey sits with him, deeply worried and just watched over him for Elektra and her own sake. “We’ll see each other again. I believe that.” She says in a hushed tone and leans in, close to him and kisses him on his forehead. “Thank you, my friend.”

Elektra approaches, smiling softly and holds Finn’s hand into hers. “You saved me, you know that? I didn’t think there was a second chance for me until you come along. I just want to thank you for giving me purpose again.” 

Outside, Chewie and R2-D2 was inspecting the Falcon to make sure it was in proper order as Rey and Elektra headed out with the Resistance following after. Leia was there, waiting with BB-8 and C-3PO who had his correct arm back, no longer brandishing the red. She greets the girls, giving them hugs and Leia stares at her daughter, a warm and affectionate look on her face. 

“You ready?” 

Elektra thinks to it, being extremely nervous and nods but then frowns. “What if he doesn’t want to see me? Turns me away.”

“He won’t.” Leia tells her.

“But how we left things—how I left things—”

“Bre,” her eyes are kind, hands enclosing Elektra’s, voice gentle, “R2 had been low on power ever since Luke went away, barely working and yet, the moment you touched him, he came back to life. That’s because of you.” 

Elektra swallows harshly, taking in her mother’s words and started to piece it together. The lightsaber calling to her, being strong with the Force, awakening R2-D2 just with her hand; she was already on her path to being who she once was. 

“Skywalker blood lives in you, coursing through your veins. You cannot run from it, but only learn.” She gives her mother another hug, parting away and joins Rey to walking towards the Falcon. “Bre, Rey,” the girls turn to face her one last time. “May the Force be with you.” They smile gratefully upon hearing it, crossing the ramp and into the Falcon. 

In the cockpit, Chewie sits as co-pilot and turns to look at the girls. Rey offers Elektra to take control and she thanks her, sitting down and eyeing the panel before gazing to Chewie with compassion. She turns it on, lifting the ship high up into the air while everyone outside watched and cheered them on. Leia was proud, seeing the next generation of Jedi beginning their journey as they fly into outer space and blast into lightspeed. 

Entering the planet of Ahch-To, Rey, Chewie, and Elektra see a pristine and mighty ocean that was an endless blue dotted with random, beautiful mountainous rock islands that had sections of countless green trees. They bank towards the main island, landing safely and heading out, Rey strapping her staff to her back and stares up at the hike that her and Elektra were about to take. Elektra sees it too, glancing back to Chewie and R2-D2 who stay by the Falcon. She then nods to Rey, the girls start up on the path. Built within the rock and foliage of the idyllic island are seemingly endless ancient stone steps that Rey and Elektra continue to climb, determined, despite their fatigue. 

Near the top, Elektra notices a few stone huts and Rey examines them, curious and mesmerized by the building technique. A gust of wind blows and Elektra spots a clearing that was small and modest with primitive stone structures, she continues and Rey travels from behind. The girls come to a stop, seeing a man in a cloak and robe that was about twenty feet away from them. He lifts his head, sensing the two and twists around slowly, seeing them. 

There, Luke Skywalker stood. Rey felt the air in her lungs escape her and Elektra, she felt herself getting emotional and takes five more steps to be closer to her uncle. He flips down his hood, revealing himself; older in age, beard white and grey, just like his hair. There was kindness in his blue eyes but also something tortured, too. He didn’t need to ask who Rey was or why his niece and her were there, his stare said everything. 

Hesitantly, Elektra raises her hands to her eyes and smears the black, dried blood off her face. She does this until it’s all gone, revealing her bare and nude face to him to show that she was vulnerable and willing to continue what she had left behind. Then, her hand reaches to her side, unclipping Luke’s lightsaber and holds it out to him. It was an offer. A plea. The galaxy’s only hope. He was amazed and yet, at odds with what he sees. This was a promise of a journey, about to begin.


	6. Beacon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The First Order reigns. Having decimated the peaceful Republic, Supreme Leader Snoke now deploys his merciless legions to seize military control of the galaxy.
> 
> Only General Leia Organa’s band of Resistance fighters stand against the rising tyranny, certain that Jedi Master Luke Skywalker will return and restore a spark of hope to the fight from the help of Elektra and Rey.
> 
> But the Resistance has been exposed. As the First Order speeds toward the rebel base, the brave heroes mount a desperate escape.

A huge Resistance cruiser vessel called the Raddus, named after the Mon Calamari Admiral Raddus, himself, ascends from the planet D’Qar, accompanied by an escort of smaller spacecraft. The citizens began leaving D’Qar, preparing their ships for evacuation, knowing that the First Order were on their way. Lieutenant Kaydel Ko Connix and her tall colleague Jones oversee the frantic people. “We’re not clear yet! There’s still thirty pallets of cannon shells in C bunker.”

“Forget the ammunition, there’s no time. Just get everyone on the transport.” She pauses, hearing a distant boom and looks to the sky to see two Resurgent-class Star Destroyers appear in the cloudy blue sky, quickly joined by the Star Destroyer, Finalizer. “Oh, no.”

General Armitage Hux stood on the bridge of the Finalizer, gazing out at the blue-green planet hanging in space and seeing the four Resistance ships that were in orbit. The Mon Calamari, a huge cargo ship with a rounded front and a ragged rear, an angular frigate, and a smaller ship with an oversized bow like a broken crescent. He had cataloged the warships, drawing on years of training, knowing that the Raddus served Leia Organa’s rabble as flagship and mobile command center. The next-largest ship was a Nebulon-C frigate, from a line built for the New Republic after the accords that ended its conflict with the Empire. 

The Finalizer’s gleaming black bridge was a model of efficiency, with controllers and monitors briskly exchanging information from the Star Destroyer’s targeting computers and sensor suites. Hux smiles at the thought of himself as the center of all that activity—a slim, signified figure in black uniform, standing at parade rest. 

“We’ve caught them in the middle of their evacuation,” Captain Edrison Peavey says. “The entirety of the Resistance, in one fragile basket.”

Hux grins, suppressing a surge of annoyance. “I have my orders from Supreme Leader Snoke himself. This is where we snuff out the Resistance once and for all.” He then turns. “Tell Captain Canady to prime his Dreadnought. Incinerate their base, destroy their transports and obliterate their fleet.” 

The enormous Mandator IV-class Siege Dreadnought known as the Fulminatrix, owned by Captain Moden Canady, arrives from hyperspace and into the foreground from the far reaches of space. Two massive cannons slung beneath the ship’s belly begin to lower and take aim. 

In the Finalizer’s bridge pit, a technician eyes a red X shape on her radar screen, her surroundings lit red for ideal visibility during battlefield conditions. “General, Resistance ship approaching. Launching shields in attack mode.”

Hux wanders over, taking a look at it. Incredulous, he asks, “A single light fighter?” He exchanges a confused look to Captain Edrison who shrugs. 

The orange and black X-wing ship, named Black One, faces off with the Fulminatrix. The tiny droid BB-8 occupies the tailseat with Poe up front, in the cockpit. BB-8 chirps while Poe flips on a few switches. “Happy beeps here, buddy, come on. We’ve pulled crazier stunts than this.” 

Inside of the Raddus, General Leia Organa stood at the base computer which had a hologram of the First Order ships and of Poe’s X-wing, listening in to his radio chatter on the intercom. “Just for the record, Commander Dameron, I’m with the droid on this one.”

“Thank you for your support, General.” Poe speaks, almost laughing and taking in a deep sigh. “Happy beeps.” He repeats to himself and flicks a switch to broadcast to the ships. “Attention. This is Commander Poe Dameron of the Republic fleet, I have an urgent communique for General _Hugs_.”

Hux listens, feeling all the eyes in the room turning his way as red threatens to bloom in his cheeks. He knew the pilot’s name all too well; telling the one technician to patch him through and he does. “This is General Hux of the First Order. The Republic is no more. Your fleet are rebel scum and war criminals. Tell your precious princess there will be no terms. There will be no surrender.”

He was proud of that last part, making a note to revisit it during the tribunals that would be carried live over the HoloNet to the entire galaxy. But Dameron, to his bafflement, didn’t reply. 

“Hi, I’m holding for General Hugs?” 

“ _This_ is Hux. You and your friends are doomed! We will wipe your filth from the galaxy!”

Another moment, then the reply. “Okay, I’ll hold.”

Hux looked around in consternation. “Hello?

“Hello? Yup. I’m still here.”

“Can you . . .” Hux’s voice trails off, him glowering to a communications officer named Lank Paze. “Can he hear me?” He nods from the bridge pit. “He can.”

“Hugs?” Poe’s voice comes in again. “With an H. Skinny guy. Kinda pasty.”

“I can hear you, can you hear me?” He spins on his heel, striding towards the window. 

“Look, I can’t hold forever.” Poe said, sounding exasperated. “If you reach him, tell him Leia has an urgent message for him.”

Peavey leans in towards Hux. “I believe he’s tooling with you, sir.”

“About his mother.” 

Huz glared at the Finalizer’s captains and found that the older man’s face was a carefully expressionless mask—as was the face of every other officier on the bridge. “Open fire!” He twirls, screaming down to the bridge pit. 

When the energy counter hit full, Poe yelled for BB-8 to punch it and the droid chirps excitedly. Black One lept forwards, being propelled by the experimental booster engine grafted to the starfighter’s stern. The velocity causes BB-8’s head to slip back from his round body. Poe thought he was going to black out from the g-force, but once the acceleration compensators kicked in, his vision cleared to see the massive Siege Dreadnought. 

“Woah, that's got a kick.” Poe mumbled as his fighter skimmed over the warship’s nose, at the apex of the giant wedge. 

“He’s going for the Dreadnought.” Peavey peers to Hux who watched. 

“Ha!” He smirks, delighted. “He’s insane.” 

The Fulminatrix’s cannons had been designed to be able to target enemy starfighters but Black One was moving at speeds no First order point-defense crews had ever experienced, even in their simulations. Poe weaved over the battleship’s hill, getting a sense of how much more lead time he needed to hit the targets. Once he had the timing down, he got himself ready and called the other Resistance ships. “Taking out the cannons now. Tallie, star your approach!” He wheeled around, binging to fire at the cannons. 

Aboard the Fulminatrix, Canady watched grimly as the lone X-wing eliminated cannon after cannon, stripping his ship of its dorsal defenses. A hologram of Hux then flickered to life, right before him. “Captain Canady, why aren’t you blasting that puny ship?” He demanded to know. 

Canady hadn’t accumulated a lengthy Imperial service record by being ignorant of the chain of command or unaware of the damage a vengeful superior could do to a career. But being lectured by a vicious child—and one who’s favored grand gestures over basic military tactics, at that—was too much for him. 

“That puny ship is too small and at too close range, We need to scramble our fighters,” he replied scornfully, turning away from the hologram as his right hand Goneril followed after. “Five bloody minutes ago.” He finishes his sentence. 

“He’ll never penetrate our armor.” Goneril tells him. 

“He’s not trying to penetrate our armor. He’s clearing out our surface cannons.” He told her icily. 

Poe flew through, blasting the second to the last cannon and seen a squadron of the First Order TIE fighters swooping over in pursuit. BB-8 chirps nervously. “Yeah, yeah, I see ‘em!” 

Only three ventured off from their initial vector to pursue him across the warship’s topside. His instinctive surge of relief quickly turned to alarm when he saw the other headers straight for the incoming bombers, but he shook his head to get rid of the thought and to stay on track. He needed to get the last cannon out to help the bombers. 

Poe rolls Black One slightly for a better angle, but the lead TIE pilot had anticipated that, and fired. The undercarriage of the X-wing was hit, red lights flashing on the console and the ship sparking. Poe turns, gazing over his shoulder at the TIE fighters and g;ances back at his malfunctioning scanners. “No, no. Damn it! BB-8, my weapon systems are down. We gotta take out that last cannon or our bombers are toast. Work your magic, buddy.” 

He chirps, descending down into the socket to a cable-filled hold. His head hovers from his body as he searches the craft compartment, seeing where the damage was. His telescoping arm comes out, an appendage plugging into the panel section until another blows. He squalled nervously, plugging up the other until another malfunction began; them cascading faster than he could repair them. BB-8 moans an “uh oh”.

“Are the auto cannons primed?” Canady stalks over to Goneril. 

She nods. “Primed and ready, sir.”

“What are we waiting for? Fire on the base!” The Fulminatrix’s cannons unleash a barrage of laserfire just as Connix’s U-55 orbital loadlifter speeds to safety, narrowly avoiding the artillery blasts which strike D’Qar’s surface. 

Connix radios to Leia. “The transport is in the air. The evacuation is complete.” 

Leia does a small cheer, calling to Poe and his X-wing. “Poe, you did it. Now get your squad back here so we can get out of this place.”

“No, General. We can do this. We have a chance to take down a Dreadnought.” Poe shouts into his headset as he turns his ship, slipping through an antenna on the Fulminatrix’s hull. One of the TIE fighters crashes and burns. “These things are fleet killers. We can’t let it get away.” 

“Disengage now. That is an or—”

Poe flips the switch to disconnect the transmission, continuing on towards the last cannon. 

Leia sees the blinking light, telling her that he was no longer listening and felt herself getting upset over the rebellious pilot as she watched the holotank, seeing his tiny X-wing swerved around for another pass. She was suddenly conscious of someone staring at her, lifting her gaze to the gold-plated protocol droid that was standing next to her. 

“Wipe that nervous expression off your face, 3PO.”

“Oh. Well, I’ll certainly try, General.” He then looks away but thinks, confused. “Nervous?” 

The cannon lines up in Poe’s cockpit's viewfinder, him holding onto the handle to fire that still flashes red. “Let’s go, BB-8. It’s now or never!”

BB-8 chirps with inventiveness born of desperation, as the panel kept on breaking into new malfunctions and his arm retracts into his body, swinging his head over and smashes it into the sparking junction box, primary photoreceptor swirling with electronic feedback as he shrieks.

The light turns green and Poe mashes his finger down, his X-wing’s S-foils opening up at full power. The Siege Dreadnought’s cannon emplacement vanished in a pillar of flame, and Poe yanks on the X-wing’s control yoke, feet jammed against the pedals, grimacing as g-forces slammed him into his seat. The maneuver ended with the two TIE fighters that were pursuing him in front of Black One’s nose. He fires, the ships becoming space dust. 

“Yes!” He cheers as BB-8 pops back up from the socket. “All clear! Bring the bombs!”

A squad of heavy bombers and A-wing ships known as Colbrat Squadron and Blue Squadron approaches the Dreadnought, resembling World War II aeroplanes, with long virtual compartments extending from their fuselages like magazines from automatic rifles. Tallie, the beautiful young blonde pilot, hovers on board her blue A-wing ship. 

“Bombers, keep that tight formation. Fighters, protect the bombers. It’s not every day we get a shot at a Dreadnought, so make this count.” 

“Copy that, Blue Leader. If you get us there, we’ll give it to them.” 

A second squad of TIE fighters came their way, Tallie eyeing them. “Gunners, look alive.” 

A battle began, TIE fighters firing and bringing down a bomber ship while the Fulminatrix’s cannons aimed for the fleet. Poe noticed, telling Tallie who told him that they were almost to the hull.

“Bombardiers, begin your dropping sequence.” 

In the belly turret of Cobalt Hammer, Paige clutched her dual triggers and sent a blast of fire into space around her. Every shot rattling the glass ball encapsulating her between that and the impact of near-misses from marauding TIEs, she’d bite her tongue more times than she could count. There was sweat running down her forehead that she desperately wanted to wipe away but didn’t dare to let go of the triggers. 

TIEs kept coming, dueling X-wings and A-wings that wheeled and circled around the bombers, trying to protect them from the relentless First Order fire. 

A TIE smashed into the clip of the one Crimson Squadrons, denoting its payload and taking out two neighbouring bombers in a chain reaction. Paige unlatches her mask, breathing heavily at the destruction before her eyes and before she knew it, she heard Poe calling to her on the transmission. “Paige, come in. We’re over the target. Why aren’t your bay doors open? You’re the only bomber left.” She rotates herself around, seeing the doors not opened and felt herself panic. “It’s all down to you!” 

She called out to Nix Jerd, not hearing anything and began wondering when was the last time she had heard anything from him. Moving quickly, she released the magnetic lock on the ball-turret hatch and scrambled up into the bomb bat, manually opening the doors below her. She peers up and above, on the flight deck, she seen Nix lying on the catwalk with the trigger right next to his hand. “Nix!” She screams. 

“Paige, drop the payload!” Poe shouts in her ear. “Now!” 

Paige began her climb up on the ladder, making it to the top to see that Nix was dead. She then reaches for the activator, grabbing it as a blast shook the Cobalt Hammer which makes her foot slip and the remote tumble out of her fingers; out of her grasp. She falls back, slamming into the deck at the bottom of the bomb bay, ten meters down. A grunt of pain escapes her lips, eyes shooting her eyes open to see the remote resting on the very edge of the catwalk. Everything hurt and she wanted to rest but she fought, forcing her foot to rise and kicked at the ladder to make the catwalk rattle and the trigger teetered. 

She kept on hitting it harder and harder, determined and this time, she drove her foot into the ladder, pain shooting into her leg. The trigger bounced, falling off the catwalk and she watches as it falls besides her, about to drop into space but she flips onto her stomach with effort and grabs the device. Her finger pressing the beeping button and the bombs released into the Dreadnought down below. Paige found her free hand creeping up to her collar, finding the Otomok medallion that she wore and thought of her sister as she shut her eyes, the Cobalt Hammer losing power and plummeting into the fire and ruin below. 

The Dreadnought broke apart, the Resistance starfighters peeling off and raced for safety of the Raddus, pursued by TIEs. Poe watched it, exhaling sadly, returning to the Raddus as well and all of them jumping to lightspeed. 

On the bridge of the Finalizer, jubilation was replaced by shocked silence. Hix stood and stared at the empty space where the Resistance fleet had been a moment earlier, then turned his head to the regard of a communications monitor speaking. 

“General, Supreme Leader Snoke is making contact from his ship.” 

Hux forced himself to look impassive. “Excellent. I’ll take it in my chambers.” 

He began walking, about to exit the room but a huge hologram of Snoke’s head appeared on the bridge, right before him, face looming. “General Hux.” 

He inhales shakily. “Ah, good. Supreme Leader—” An unseen force slammed him into the polished black floor of the bridge, sliding him forwards under the hologram of Snoke and spins him around.

“My disappointment in your performance cannot be overstated.” 

Hux fought to rise, his mouth bleeding as he stares at him. “They can’t get away, Supreme Leader. We have them tied on the end of a string.”

Finn awoke with a start, yelling out Elektra and Rey’s names—and immediately bangs his head. He looks around frantically, expecting to see himself in the snowy forest of the Starkiller Base because that was the last thing he remembered; the slim figure of Rey being knocked out by Kylo Ren and he had managed to catch a glimpse of Elektra welding Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber as she fought with her brother and his fiery lightsaber. The same one that struck him from behind, making every nerve in his body spasm in agony. 

He was surrounded by white walls and a ceiling, laying on a gurney with a transparent medical cocoon above his head. Around him were crates and equipment, scattered haphazardly. And there was no signs of Elektra or Rey. 

Finn shoved the medical cocoon’s bubble aside. His arm creaked strangely as he did, and an odd smell of briny and oceanic made his nostrils flare. He realized that he was wearing a bacta suit of clear flexpoly, ribbed and shot through with tubing when he tried to get off the gurney but fell over which made healing bacta fluid squirt out of the suit. Finn’s back had a dull ache and his mind was foggy but he didn’t mind, he stumbled across the cluttered space and peers out of the huge window which was filled with a blue radiance—the unmistakable signature of hyperspace. 

He turns away, heading out of the room after fumbling with the controls and emerging into the hallway. Soldiers hurried past, wearing the patchwork uniforms of the Resistance and before Finn could ask them a question, they vanished down the hall; ignoring him completely. He follows, calling out for Elektra and Rey. 

Poe parks Black One down on the flight deck of the Raddus’s fighter hangar, the cockpit canopy rose and a weary Poe removes his helmet. “Well done, pal,” he tells BB-8, handing his helmet off to a maintenance guy as BB-8’s visual sensors flagged something odd in the corridor, chirping inquisitively. “Finn naked leaking bag? What?” He eyes his droid. “Did you fry a chip?”

BB-8 replies, telling him to look and Poe does, in fact seeing a Finn Naked Leaking Bag shuffling past the hangar door, streamers of bacta jetting from the innumerable ports in his suit. 

Poe hurries, climbing out of his cockpit and down the ladder. “Finn! Finn, buddy.” He runs up, touching his shoulder and Finn faces him. “It’s so good to see you.” Fluid hits Poe in the chest and he backs up, seeing where it soaked into his uniform. “What? Let’s . . . We need to get you dressed. Come on.” 

He places his hand on Finn’s back, directing him down the hall tenderly as Finn was still trying to have his mind catch up with his surroundings and all that was going on. He didn’t want to confuse the young man anymore than what he already was. 

“You must have a thousand questions.”

Finn then paused, looking to Poe, recognizing him completely now but Poe was wrong; he only had one question. “Where’s Elektra and Rey?” 

The air was damp with the tang of salt while Luke took tentative steps towards Elektra who was holding out the lightsaber, his left hand flesh and blood while the right was metal and wires. He takes it gently from her, examining it for himself and Elektra steps back and waits for his word with Rey standing right behind her; within an arm’s reach. 

Luke’s eyes meet Rey’s then Elektra’s, the girls holding the powerful gaze as he just effortlessly tosses the lightsaber over his left shoulder and off the cliff. The girls’ eyes followed its arc through the air, then focused back on Luke, wide with shock. Elektra felt herself getting offended, hurt, and angry meanwhile Rey was clueless and puzzled. 

Luke walks pass them without a word, his strides long and deliberate. 

“Master Skywalker?” Rey manages to say, but he had vanished down the stone stairs. 

Elektra’s eyes were still glued onto the spot where Luke had thrown the lightsaber that had been in their family for three generations; Anakin, Luke, and now— _supposedly_ —Elektra. Was he still upset over her leaving him in order to be with her brother? Did he not want to see her again? Did he not want to accept her welcome and throw the lightsaber as some sort of protest? She had no clue. 

“The _hell_ was _that_?” She bickers, flabbergasted and fuming. Elektra ferociously spins and charges down the hill, Rey going after, hurrying to be at her side. 

They make it to the clearing with the huts, arriving just in time to see the rusted metal door of the one that was closest to them slam shut, leaving them alone with the keening birds. Rey edged up to the door. “Master Skywalker. I’m from the Resistance. Your sister Leia sent Elektra and I. We need your help.” 

There was no reply. 

Rey then taps the door with the end of her quarterstaff, listening in. “Hello?” 

Elektra watches, the fire in the pit of her stomach growing more until she overheard several of the pudgy birds with bulging eyes warbling. She headed down to the source of the noise, seeing two of them inspecting the lightsaber that Luke had hurtled into the grass over the cliff. The one was jumping on the button that would’ve activated it as another was eyeing the blade end of it; Elektra carefully places the one bird off to the side and picks up the lightsaber. 

Below, in the shallow waters of the bay, she caught sight of a shape. It was an X-wing fighter, corroded by long immersion in salt water. The sight of it made her look at the lightsaber again, relieved that it was undamaged and placed it back on her belt; clipping it into place. Elektra had a plan in the works as she began heading down to the Falcon. 

Luke was in his hut, putting on rough-hewn woolens and leggings, hearing a knock on the door. He stayed silent until another went. “Go away.” He replies and before he knew it, the door flew in and bounced off the far wall which made him jolt and spin around. An angry Wookie storms in, growling and snarling at him, Rey and Elektra follow after. “Chewie, what are you doing here?” 

Chewbacca, still angry like Elektra, subjected Luke to another round of bellowing. 

“He says you’re coming back with us.” Rey informs him. 

“I got that.” Luke gives her an annoyed glance before turning his attention back to the Wookie. “How did you find me?” He asks, asking as if Rey and Elektra weren’t there. 

“Long story.” Rey starts to speak again. “We’ll tell you on the Falcon.”

“Falcon?” Luke finally looks to Rey who grew quiet and Chewie softly growls. “Wait . . .” Luke then found Elektra’s face. “Where’s your father? Where’s Han?” 

Elektra, feeling herself being drained from emotion, tells him the truth. “He killed him.” She didn’t even need to explain who He was, Luke already knew who she was referring to. His nephew and her twin brother. Kylo Ren. 

The throne room was aboard the enormous warship known as the Supremacy. The Supremacy was a flying wedge, measuring sixty kilometers from wingtip to wingtip. Its designers has anointed it the first of the galaxy’s Mega-class Star Destroyers, but such a classification struck Hux as essentially meaningless. The Supremacy could deliver the destructive power of a full fleet but that was a decidedly narrow perspective from which to assess its capabilities. Within its armored hull were production lines churning out everything from stormtrooper armor to Star Destroyers, foundries and factories, R&D labs and training centers for cadets. The Supremacy’s industrial capacity outstripped that of entire star systems, while its stores of everything from foodstuffs to ore ensured it could operate independently for years without masking planetfall. 

The doors of the turbolift open and Kylo stands there in his silver and black mask, stepping out into Snoke’s private domain at the Supremacy’s heart. The First Order’s leader sat on his throne, flanked by eight members of his crimson armored Praetorian Guard. Banners bearing the regime’s emblem hung overhead, reflected in the gleaming black floor, and red curtains veiled the chamber’s viewpoints. 

“Tied on a string indeed, General Hux. Well done. The Resistance will soon be in our grasp.”

“Thank you, Supreme Leader.” Hux had turned, seeing Kylo and knew that he arrived with no accomplishment that might deflect Snoke’s wrath—Kylo needed to be rescued from Starkiller Base as it came apart and spent much of the time since then being put back together by medical droids. 

Kylo studiously ignored Hux as the black-clad general all but trutted out of the throne room, smirking. Snoke had no difficulty sensing the anger that boiled out of Kylo at the sight of Hux’s smug smile which caused the leader to chuckle as Kylo took a knee. “You wonder why I keep a rabid cur in such a place of power?” He remarks once Hux left. “A cur’s weakness, properly manipulated, can be a sharp tool.” A pause. “How’s your wound?” He says, making no effort to hide the derision in his question. 

“It’s nothing.” Kylo lied. The lightsaber slash to his face had been closed with microsutures, but he would bear a scar for the rest of his life. And his abdomen ached where a bolt from Chewbacca’s bowcaster had struck—a blow that would have been instantly fatal if he hadn’t instinctively contained its energy with the Force. 

“Hmm. The mighty Kylo Ren,” Snoke says, considering his student and stands from his throne. “When I found you, I saw what all masters live to see. Raw, untamed power. And beyond that, something truly special. The potential of your bloodline. A new Vader. Now I fear I was mistaken.” 

Behind his mask, Kylo glowered at the tall figure in golden khalat robes. “I’ve given everything I have to you. To the dark side.” 

“Take that ridiculous thing off.” Snoke’s voice dropped to disgust which shock froze Kylo momentarily. He slowly reaches up, unlatching and removing his mask to reveal his scarred face while avoiding Snoke’s intense gaze. “There it is. You have too much of your father’s heart in you, young Solo.”

Kylo’s eyes snapped to Snoke’s, burning with rage. “I _killed_ Han Solo. When the moment came, I didn’t hesitate.” 

“And look at you, the deed split your spirit to the bone.” Kylo’s eyes drift away to the floor, knowing what he said was true. “You were unbalanced, bested by your own sister”—at the mention of her, his eyes traveled straight back up to Snoke—“who had never held a lightsaber! You _failed_!” 

Kylo felt rage ignite deep inside of him, becoming an inferno that demanded release. He stood, taking one step towards Snoke and ripped off his cape and the leader had anticipated that. Snoke threw out his hand, lightning erupting from his fingers, blasting Kylo backward and leaving him reeling in pain. Unbeknownst to Kylo, Elektra had felt the violent jolt travel through her, coursing throughout her body as it drops into a heap onto the ground outside of Luke’s hut. Rey shouts, aiding her in a hurry as she screamed in agony, holding her chest to try and somehow numb the pain. 

The Praetorian Guards snapped into combat stances, faceless visors fixed on Kylo as Snoke yells, “Skywalker lives! The seed of the Jedi Order lives.” He waves off the guards, them going back to their previous placements as Kylo sets the top half of his body up to the best of his ability to eye the Supreme Leader as he took a seat at his throne again. “As long as it does, hope lives in the galaxy.” 

Kylo then rises to his feet, swallowing harshly and eyeing Snoke’s face that was asymmetrical, his body hunched, and yet he still radiated power; authority. 

His small eyes fixed on the boy with a contemptuous look. “I thought you would be the one to snuff it out. Alas, you’re no Vader. You’re just a child with a mask.” 

In the turbolift, doors shut, Kylo exhaled shakily; feeling himself getting overworked and emotional. He peers down at the helmet he cradled in his right hand for a moment, lifting his chin to face forwards and felt the rage come without warning. He smashed the mask into the wall with a grunt, vibrating with such anger that he paused and withdrew his helmet to see how it was crushed and cracked. The Force was howling inside of him and once again, he began hammering his mask against the metal as sparks flew until it had been reduced to a twisted hunk of black and silver. 

The turbolift doors open and two frightened officers straightened themselves out to be presentable in front of the seething young man in black. 

“Prepare my ship.” Kylo orders, storming out and into the hall. 

The late afternoon suns hung low over the islands of Ahch-To, lengthening the shadows of the old stone huts. Below, the surf sighed, a rhythmic sound like static. Luke Skywalker sat, dwelling in front of Chewie who was sitting next to a recovering Elektra while Rey stood speaking to Luke, all of them listening to her. “There’s no light left in Kylo Ren. He’s only getting stronger. The First Order will control all the major systems within weeks. We need your help. We need the Jedi Order back. We need Luke Skywalker.” 

Luke’s eyes were cold and flinty. “You don’t need Luke Skywalker.” 

“Did you hear a word I just said?” Rey looks at him in disbelief. 

“You think, what? I’m gonna walk out with a laser sword and face down the whole First Order?” 

“Why not?” Elektra then spoke with a grunt, her body still aching as she stands, stepping up to Rey with a stagger. “Our family has done far more crazier things.” 

Luke now stood, eyeing his niece. “What did you think was going to happen here?” His tone was mild pity but a hint of irritation. “You think I came to the most unfindable place in the galaxy for no reason at all? Go away.” 

Elektra was now angry, seeing him walk away from her, from Rey and Chewie, from the fight. “Are you _trying_ to punish me?!” She shouts, her voice wavering from trying to hold back her frustration and tears. She once left when Luke begged her to stay and now, she’s begs for him to help only for him to tell her to go; it was a complete full circle. 

Luke didn’t answer, he hadn’t even turn to give her a glance, he retreated into his hut; stopping to pick up the broken door and lean it up against the stone. 

Poe had brought Finn to his quarters so he could away the slimy remnants of the bacta, don one of Poe’s spare Resistance uniforms—and get an answer to his question. But Poe’s answer had left him even more uneasy. 

“So you blew up the Starkiller Base, Elektra beat Kylo, the Resistance got the map, and she and Rey left for Luke Skywalker.” Finn said to Poe. “You won, right? Why does this not feel like winning?” 

Rolling down the corridor beside them, BB-8 bloops mournfully—agreeing with Finn. 

“We came out of hiding to attack Starkiller,” Poe informs him, adjusting a bundle under his arm that he’s removed from a locker in his quarters. “It didn’t take the First Order long to find our base.” 

Finn could see his friend’s attention was far away. He pauses, trying to figure out how to phrase what he knew he had to say. “Look, Poe, I believe in what you guys are doing. But I didn’t join this army—I followed Rey and Elektra here. I just don’t want you thinking I’m something I’m not.” 

“It’s going to be alright, don’t worry. You’re with us, where you belong.” 

Finn scratches at his side, it being a relief to be free of the bacta but it still itched abominable and so missed that Poe was offering him whatever it was he’d taken from his quarters. It was the pilot’s jacket; the same one that he salvaged from the wrecked TIE on Jakku, when he had thought Poe was dead, and that Kylo Ren had sliced through in their confrontation on Starkiller Base. The rent in the back had been mended by a decidedly inexpert hand. 

“I’m not much of a sewer.” Poe says apologetically. “Plus I was, you know, saving the fleet.” 

Finn’s face fell. It was a kind gesture, which was no surprise—Poe had never been anything but kind to him. Heck, the pilot had even given him a name and made sure that he was okay with it. 

C-3PO rushed around the corner, startling BB-8 and nearly plowing into them. “Commander Dameron, Princess Leia requests your presence on the bridge at once. I tried to make that sound as pleasant as I could.” 

Leia had smacked Poe across the face. “You’re demoted.” 

“For what?” He protested, his cheek stinging. “A successful run? We took out a Dreadnought.”

“At what cost? Pull your head out of your cockpit.” 

“You start an attack, you follow it through.” 

“There are things you can’t solve by jumping in an X-wing and blowing something up. I need you to learn that.” She goes to walk past him but he stops her softly. 

“There were heroes on that mission.” Poe says, unwilling to concede the point. 

“Dead heroes.” Leia snapped. “No leaders.”

The silence that followed was uncomfortable and seemingly endless, her leaving him and heading over to the table where Finn was eyeing screens. “We’re really nowhere. Deep space. How’s Elektra and Rey going to find us?”

The fleet had emerged from hyperspace at an old Alliance rendezvous point that was nothing more than arbitrarily chosen coordinates, and Finn was staring at a holographic chart of their position. Something about the plaintive need in Finn’s question touched Leia. He was brave and capable, but there was a childlike quality about him—unguarded and almost innocent. In a galaxy riven by war, she thought, that was something to be cherished instead of punished. 

She lifted her sleeve, revealing a faintly glowing bauble strapped to her wrist and Finn recognized it. “A cloaked binary beacon.”

Leia nods. “To light their way home.” 

“So until they both get back, what’s the plan?” 

“We need to find a new base.” 

D’Acy then speaks up. “One with enough power to get a distress signal to our allies. Scattered in the Outer Rim.”

Just then, a klaxon began blaring on the bridge. “A proximity alert!” A startled Ackbar hollars. “They’ve found us.”

“That’s impossible.” Poe utters. 

A glance at the Raddus’s holographic displays showed a massive warship had emerged from lightspeed, accompanied by more than two dozen Star Destroyers. Poe was one of the few to recognize the huge ship. Its existence has been revealed by intelligence brought to D’Qar just before the evacuation. 

“That’s Snoke’s ship. You’ve got to be kidding me.” He turns, running over to Connix. “Can we jump to lightspeed?” 

“We have just enough fuel for one jump.” She says gravely, her face pale. 

“Do it fast—we have to get out of here.”

Leia held up her hand, realization dawning on her. “They tracked us through hyperspace.” 

“That’s impossible.” Finn says to her.

“Yes, it is. And they’ve done it.” 

BB-8 hangs his head now, moaning at Leia’s words. 

“So if we jump to lightspeed,” Finn begins, “they’ll just find us again and we’ll be out of fuel. They’ve got us.” 

That shook Poe out of his trance. “Not yet, they don’t.” He then heads up to Leia. “Permission to jump in an X-wing and blow something up?” 

“Permission granted.” She nods to him then faces Ackbar. “Admiral, swing us around!” Poe hurried off the bridge, finding himself oddly relieved to be returning to battle with BB-8, calling the other Resistance pilots to get ready for another fight. 

The Raddus trembled, the First Order firing at the ship but it had a shield around it to protect it but not until Kylo’s prototype TIE Silencer with a night black hull began leading the squadrons. Tallie and other Resistance pilots were in their X-wings and A-wings, beginning their roll call while Poe was running to join them, BB-8 going ahead of him at his orders. Tallie spotted the orange accented astromech rolling into the hangar from the main corridor. Poe sprinted right behind the droid, eyes fixed on his X-Wing. Then the sensor’s in Tallie’s A-wing flashed red, keening an urgent warning: Missile lock. Her fingers reached and before she could silence the alert, everything around her became heat and light. 

Poe was thrown back from the explosion, BB-8’s crashing down and his magnetic head falling off. Alarms blared, Poe grunted, looking out to see the black smoke and fire that took his X-wing as the hangar doors closed, being sealed by metal. BB-8 gets his head back onto his body, bleeping as Finn ran to Poe, kneeling down next to him. “Poe, you alright?” 

“We need to get out of range of those Star Destroyers.” 

Luke had left his hut around dusk with a pack on his shoulder, Rey and Elektra following after to see what his daily routine was. The three ascended the island to its jagged crest to watch Ahch-To’s second sun clear the horizon. Down a well worn path, the girls trailed Luke to the tumbled rocks and narrow beaches that fringed the shoreline. Seabirds called overhead and the salt air was sharp in Elektra and Rey’s nose. On the beach, sea sows lounged torpidly in ride pools while Luke unfastened a bottle from his pack and bent down to a sow’s belly, squeezing green milk from her swollen udder. 

Elektra and Rey both made disgusted faces, feeling ill, watching how Luke drank the milk; a green streak on his lower lip that dripped into his beard. The sow regarded the girls hazily, Rey turning away to not make the creature feel self conscious whereas Elektra just gave her a small nod and smile. 

Off they went again, traveling to the south side of the island, a narrow inlet pierced the land, its cliffs plunging down into a foamy slot of a bay. A pole leaned against the edge of the cliff, its end planted into the shallows far below. Luke took off his pack, heading straight for the pole and grabs it, using it as a lever to swing himself over the gap. 

“Careful!” Rey shouts and Elektra went wide eyed. 

He landed lightly on the other side, standing on an impossibly narrow ledge and aimed a withering look their way. Bracing himself, he lifts the pole above the churning water and the girls see that the end of it was pointed, barbed. Luke waits, utterly still, until some signal told him to plunge the pole into the water. When he pulls it up, a meter long fish was flapping on the end, stuck through. 

“How’d you do that?” Rey asks. “The Force?” 

“No.” 

It began thundering, raining hard when they returned to the saddle at the top of the island, the great fish being carried on Luke’s shoulders. Rey and Elektra trudged along a few steps behind him, peeking at his back through the rising wind and the slashing rain, and making sure they stayed close enough to hear him if he spoke to either of them. 

He didn’t. 

Elektra paused in her walking, taking a squat to let her legs relax and urged Rey to continue on after Luke. She went, leaving her alone in the pouring, ravenous rain and allowed herself to draw in a deep breath and focus. Without even trying, Elektra began tapping into the Force, feeling it around her and tracing the ever changing currents and ripples made by life. Her breathing slowed and she let her senses drift, as if untethered from her body. She reached out beyond the confines of Ahch-To, her awareness expanding. 

“Full engines ahead!” Leia orders on the bridge. “Get out of range of the Star Destroyers and the fighters will fall back.” 

“All craft, full engines!” Ackbar tells the officers. “Concentrate rear shields.” 

The Raddus was at the tail of the Resistance column, its shields between their First Order pursuers and the other three ships. The TIE Silencer flies right past the window and Leia went rigid, staring as her mind brushed a familiar presence in the Force—rather two presences that she knew intimately. One that once been bright but had turned black as space, becoming a soundless scream of rage and need. And the other, a hue of grey with streaks of gold, being soft and silent. 

She knew instantly that it was Ben & Bre Solo, her children. 

Both Kylo and Elektra had focused on their mother, them being connected and sensing her in the Force despite being miles away. Elektra felt Leia and Kylo, but Kylo only had Leia; putting all his attention on her as he hovered in his TIE Silencer and eyed the Raddus. 

Leia tried to stop herself from being drawn into her memories, even as she knew she shouldn’t be able to resist. 

Ben and Bre in her womb, both of them turning and tumbling in search of comfort, an ever expanding radiance in the Force, but one shot through with veins of shadow. Luke had reassured her that was normal—the brighter the light, the darker the shadow. She’d desperately hoped that was true. As babies, Ben and Bre were red faced and round. Ben’s hair had been black from birth, impossibly fine but Bre’s, hers began to develop to a lighter shade; a chestnut brown that was delicate. 

As toddlers, Bre always made sure Han was carrying her and Ben forever followed, carrying the dice from the Millennium Falcon—the ones their father had used to win the beloved, battered freighter—and promising anyone who’d listen that one day he would be a pilot, too, like his daddy. 

In adolescence, Ben and Bre’s faces grown lean above strong jaws that they got from Han though Bre took after his appearances more and Ben had Leia’s. Ben had always seemed alone, a churning storm in the Force while Bre was outgoing, a ray of sunshine in the Force. Ben’s anger had begun to manifest in malfunctions and breakdown and objects that fell of shelves and shattered with no one near. Bre would always get him to calm down, she’d give him hugs and that would always do the trick, she was the eye of his storm—no matter what, she never gave up on him. 

Ben and Bre, her children. Who had been stolen from her and Han, Ben by Snoke’s wiles and Luke’s mistakes, and Bre by still remaining to be the peacemaker for Ben. Who’d become Kylo and Elektra Ren, the champions of the First Order. Ben becoming his father’s murderer. 

In his TIE Silencer, Kylo let himself recall his parents’ worried conversations behind closed doors, the ones they’d deluded themselves into thinking he wouldn’t know about. Conversations about the anger and resentment that had boiled over once again in their son. Conversations in which they talked about him like he wasn’t their son, but some kind of monster. That’s why he had always loved his twin sister the most, because she loved him back and she put up with him and his anger more than what their own parents did. They were frightened of him, he realized. And so they got rid of him, sending him away to his uncle Luke—whose betrayal would prove far worse. As for Bre, like the many times before, she was by his side through it all because that was their relationship. It was all or nothing between them; inseparable. 

But Ben Solo was no more—Kylo had shed his childhood identity and the pathetic weakness it represented. Han Solo’s days of cheating and disappointing people were over. The New Republic was destroyed. And now the Resistance, the last of his mother’s causes, would follow it into extinction. 

The heavy cruiser’s bridge was bracketed in Kylo’s sights. He glances at his instruments, verifying that his torpedoes were loaded and armed. His mother was indeed there. He could feel her in the Force, and he could sense her determination and focus along with a deep weariness. And sorrow. And worry. 

His thumb hovered over the rigger, even as his senses drank in impressions from the Force. The panic on the bridge ebbed and flowed around the calm focus that was his mother. Her anxiety pulsed in the Force, in this last moment of her death, but she wasn’t afraid. She was worried for him, for Elektra too, he realized. And she wasn’t angry. She ached for him to come back to her and Elektra; the last of his family. 

Kylo depressed the trigger slightly, not quite enough to fire and Elektra’s breathing ceases to exist. She shook her head, dreading the seconds but it melted away when suddenly, Kylo lifted his thumb. Elektra felt herself gasp, softly smiling at the relief until Kylo’s wingmate took the shot instead. 

The torpedo sheared through the bridge of the Raddus and exploded. In a nanosecond it became the center of an expanding envelope of over pressurization that hurled crew members and equipment in all directions, shattered the viewports, and buckled the bulkheads separating the bridge from the rest of the ship. The payload of the torpedo’s superheated plasma vaporized everything that that blast wave hadn’t flung into space, leaving behind a ruin of twisted, blackened metal, already cooling in the vacuum. 

The explosion has buffeted him in his cockpit. If he had known, he could have stopped the torpedo by freezing it in space with a thought. But he had been surprised. Now he, nor Elektra, couldn’t sense their mother. The shock shattered his focus, leaving him breathing hard. 

“Ren, the Resistance ships have pulled out of range.” Hux announced over his comlink. “We can’t cover you at this distance. Return to the fleet.” 

Kylo grunts through his gritted teeth, streaking for the distant line of First Order warships.

Through the void, Leia Organa flew, arms raised as if in supplication. She could feel the moisture in her eyes and mouth evaporating, her lungs struggling for air that wasn't there. Her eyes were closed, but she could sense the debris that was all around her, the bridge crew members that were still alive but soon would die. Her son was lost to her, flying back to his master and away from the destruction that had ensued. She could surrender, and it would be all over in a moment, be at peace. Then she felt a light nearby, drifting through space and the wreckage. It was Elektra's beacon, the one she would need to find her way back. It had come loose from Leia's wrist. She opens her eyes, seeing it and enclosed the soft glow her hand. She couldn't give up, not yet. She had to go on for her daughter. 

Her right stretched hand tenses as she concentrated, feeling the Force. She was surrounded by the remains of the battle but thin traceries of life were still there, generated by the tiny microorganisms that lived, undetected, on and in bodies and even in the air. Leia asked the Force to help her, seeing Finn, Connix, and Poe gathered at an air lock. Even as her senses dimmed, her body rose toward the gaping maw of the shattered bridge. It slid through the wreckage and into the lock, Leia's fingers brushing the viewport, and the outer hatch closed. 

Poe, Finn, and Connix ran for the door, opening it and flooded the narrow space with light and air and life. She collapsed on the floor, them shutting the hatch and called for medics to help her as she let go; allowing herself to slide into darkness. 

A mask is placed over her mouth and nose, them medic droid squeezing it to give her air as Connix, Poe, and others joined at her side as they placed her on a gurney and directed her down the long corridor. The beacon falls out of Leia's hand, dropping onto the floor and Finn seen it, picking it up and held it tight before eyeing the her being taken away. The only thing he could think about was Elektra; how she had lost her father and could now be losing her own mother. His heart hurt, throbbed and ached for his friend that he was so desperate to see again. 


	7. Lesson One

Luke had opened his door in the early morning, Rey standing there with her staff and Elektra standing right beside her, both giving him looks of determination despite being chilled and weary. He sighs, hesitating before shaking his head. “You’re wasting your time.” He heads for the worn stone stairs, wreathed in mist. 

The girls embark after yet again, following him around as they listened in to the cry of the birds and murmurs of the sea. Rey glances to Elektra, beginning to speak; at first just to keep her warm but she found herself wanting to speak with the girl that she was so curious about. 

“You don’t think he’ll budge, do you?” She softly asks. 

Elektra eyes her for a moment as they walk, looking up ahead to see Luke still carrying on the path. “Maybe . . . I’m not sure about anything anymore.” She exhales deeply through her nose. 

“There’s two things I’ve learned about living on Jakku. One, scavenge what you can. And two, waiting. We’ve scavenged, now we just need to wait.” Rey was right, they picked at Luke’s bones to try and have him return to the fight but he didn’t budge, waiting was the only thing left to do. 

But unlike Rey, Elektra never liked waiting around. She knew that waiting never got anything done, it was just something that never worked in her family. Her father was reckless, her mother was a fighter, Anakin did everything he could, Luke did what he believed was right, Ben was impulsive, and Elektra, she was assertive. The family was entirely reckless, she couldn’t deny that—neither could Luke. 

Rey seen the sadness swelling in Elektra’s eyes and she mustered up a small face, power walking up to be closer to Luke and began addressing the story of how she lived on Jakku for years, meeting Elektra, Finn, and BB-8, flying the Falcon, seeing the miraculous green of Takodana. How she found herself when she touched his lightsaber with Elektra, departing D-Qar with a Wookie and an ancient map for a guide. Elektra felt herself smirking at Rey, finding it admirable that part of her waiting plan was to annoy Luke just for Elektra’s benefit. 

Then, her feet came to a halt as the wind blew past. 

**_Bre,_ **

Something—or someone—was calling her. A sweet sound, whispering to her through the mist. She turns away from Luke and Rey, seeing a structure that was hidden in the fog, silently trekking towards it; eyes fixed ahead. 

Rey looks over her shoulder, about to ask Elektra a question but sees her trailing off all by herself. “Elektra?” She calls out, confused and that gains Luke’s attention. He watched as his niece went straight towards the Jedi Temple that was within a hollowed out uneti tree. 

The tree has been massive once, but all that remained of it now was mossy husk. In one end an opening gapes, carved by weather and time. It was warm and dry inside. Light from a crack in the trunk fell on a nook in the wood that once held a row of ten or so very old books. 

Elektra entered, approaching them and saw how they began to faintly glow, feeling how the air was thrumming with energy. She stretched out her hand, feeling pulled to touch the one in the middle and just as her middle finger touched it, she was thrown into another Forceback. 

**_“I will not fight you.”_ **

Elektra peers around, seeing her being a dark, low ceiling room and turns around to Darth Vader and his glowing red lightsaber, scanning the area around. 

**_“You have a twin sister.”_** His deep, electronic voice spoke through his mask and she took a step up to listen in. **_“Your feelings have now betrayed her, too. Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me. Now his failure is complete. If you will not turn to the dark side, then perhaps she will.”_**

 ** _“Never!”_** Young Luke shouts, igniting his green bladed lightsaber and rushing at Vader with a frenzy. Sparks fly as Luke and Vader fight in the cramped area, Luke’s hatred forces Vader to retreat out of the low area and across a bridge overlooking a vast elevator shaft. 

Elektra rushes after, watching as each stroke of Luke's sword drives Darth Vader further toward defeat, getting knocked to his knees as he raises his sword to block another onslaught. Luke slashes Vader’s right hand off at the wrist, causing metal and electronic parts to fly from the mechanical stump. Vader drops his sword, clattering away uselessly, over the edge of the platform and into the bottomless shaft below. Vader collapses onto his back, groaning in pain while Luke moves over Vader and holds the blade of his sword to his own father’s throat. 

Elektra felt herself shaken, it reminded her of what she had done to her brother on Starkiller Base. She was so ruthless with fighting, tapping into the Dark Side unintentionally because of the anger that was pent up within her. She always heard how her mother Leia compared her to her father, Han, and back on D’Qar before they left for Starkiller Base, Elektra overheard her say how Elektra reminded her of Luke as well. She never knew how or why, it was a sensitive topic to the point that she never brought it up, but it now made sense why. Elektra was strong with the Force, always had been even when she tried to suppress it, and she had a good heart just like Luke. And Ben, he was like Vader. Passionate in the wrong ways, followed his head rather than his heart, and too involved with the Dark Side to realize what things he has done. 

Elektra began to wonder if that’s what was happening here—if the Forceback was foreshadowing her and her brother’s relationship of what took place on Starkiller Base, in the snowy forest. 

An evil chuckle sounds and Elektra stares up at the stairs, seeing an older man in a cloak and robe who had uncontrollable, pleased agitation. He claps his hands together, staring at Luke.

**_“Your hate has made you powerful. Now, fulfill your destiny and take your father’s place at my side!”_ **

“Palpatine.” Elektra utters to herself, looking up at him and remembered the story of how her mother told that he was the master of Darth Vader; that he was the reason why Anakin turned to the Dark because he had lied to him. 

Luke looks Vader’s mechanical hand, then to his own mechanical, black-gloved hand, and that’s when he realized how much he is becoming like his father; like a Sith. Luke steps back, turning off his lightsaber and faces Palpatine as he hurls it away. **“ _Never. I’ll never turn to the Dark Side. You’ve failed, your Highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me.”_**

The Emperor’s glee turns to rage, him scowling. _**“So be it . . . Jedi.”** _He steps down from the bottom step, holding out his hands to Luke. **_“If you will not be turned, you will be destroyed.”_**

Blinding bolts of energy, evil lightning, shoot from Palpatine’s hands at Luke which sends him down to the floor in agony.

Elektra is brought back, breathing heavily and gasping for air as she takes her clammy hand away from the book. “What are you doing in here?” She turns, seeing Luke in front of Rey at the opening of the tree. 

She was so entranced by the books and the Forceback that she barely noticed that she had been acknowledged by her friend and uncle. “This place, I know it. I’ve seen it.” 

“Built a thousand generations ago to keep these. The original Jedi texts,” he steps up, plucking the one book that was to the right of the middle book Elektra had touched. She watches as he opens it up to a random page, her eyes seeing ancient runes and feeling the power they radiated. “Just like me, they are the last of the Jedi religion.” 

Luke grows silent, looking up from the book and his eyes searching Elektra’s face. It was rather unsettling, he barely paid any attention to her but now, he was. 

“You said you’ve seen this place. That means that you’ve seen the island, the books.” 

Elektra shakes her head. “I’ve seen the temple, and the books, but never the island.”

“I have.” Rey starts. “The island. Only in dreams.” 

Luke was then puzzled by the two girls; he expected this type of witchery from Elektra considering their shared bloodline but Rey? She was a different story. “Who are you?” 

“Weren’t you listening? I told you the story.” 

“I went in and out.” 

“The Resistance sent me to join Elektra.” 

“They sent you?” Luke studies her. “What’s special about you?” Rey doesn’t answer back, she just looks to Elektra for comfort and support. “Where are you from?” 

“Nowhere.” She remarks, recalling the endless days and heat and sand. 

“No one’s from nowhere.” 

“Jakku.” 

Luke raised an eyebrow. “Alright, that is pretty much nowhere. Why are you here, Rey, from Nowhere?” 

“The Resistance sent me to join Elektra.” She repeats. “We need your help. The First Order’s become unstoppab—”

“Why are you here?” 

Rey knew that there was nowhere to hide, especially when staring into his eyes. She took a breath, and eyed him pleadingly. “Something inside me has always been there, but it had awakened when Elektra and I both touched your lightsaber. And I’m afraid. I don’t know what it is or what to do with it. And I need help.” 

“You need a teacher.” He sighs. “I can’t teach you.” 

“Why?” Elektra and Rey both said at the exact same time. 

Rey added on. “We’ve seen your daily routine. You’re not that busy.”

“I’ll never train another generation of Jedi.” Luke then flicks his eyes to Elektra. “You asked why I came here? I came to this island to die.” He then moves past them both, stopping at the entrance. “It’s time for the Jedi to end.”

“Mom sent us here with hope,” Elektra begins, her temper being passive aggressive. “If she was wrong, she deserves to know why. We all do.” 

It was all too sudden, too much. Luke had seen the connection between Elektra, the books, and Rey, and stopped ignoring the both of them only to reject them again. To reject his niece, his sister, Rey, and all those who were depending on him so desperately. He strided out of the library, reclaiming the solitude he had guarded jealously. 

It was night time long before Elektra knew, watching over Rey as she slept on the bench that was outside of Luke’s hut. In Elektra’s hand, she held the beacon and so badly wanted to return to her mother to see if she was alright but she couldn’t bring herself too because she’d just be doing what she had done last time with Luke. 

“Just need to wait.” She utters to herself as the cold wind blows, drawing a chill down her spine. 

Her mind began to wander, stumbling across the fact that Rey had seen the island of Ahch-To in her dreams while Elektra had seen the temple library and the books in hers. Strangely, it was like her and Rey were somehow connected. Ever since the joined Forceback at Maz’s, it appeared that the two were inseparable and bridged together like how Elektra and Kylo were with having the Force Twin Bond—but this was very different. It was something else entirely. 

Rey shudders again and Elektra stands, taking off her jacket and places it over her to help her maintain warmth while she slept. She wanders back to her own spot on the ground, sitting criss cross and felt the hilt of the lightsaber hitting her thigh. Elektra’s eyes peer down, her hand slipping towards it and unclipping it from her belt. She stares at the silver hilt, able to see her reflection and she frowns, a part of her still trying to figure out why it had called to her. 

Down below on the beach, Chewie sat by his fire, the shadow of the Millennium Falcon behind him. Building the fire had taken him some time since the island had few trees, just stubborn shrubs kept stunted by the ceaseless wind. He did manage to capture two of the native pudgy birds—Porgs as Luke informed them—cooking them on a spit which he was eager about; a change from the shipboard rations. 

It was done. Nicely charred, with a hint of spiciness from the firewood. Chewie was about to take the first bite when something caught his eye. It was a group of Porgs, standing at the edge of the firelight as if mesmerized. They stared up at him with big, glassy eyes. He roared, the birds fleeing into the darkness. With satisfaction, Chewie turns to take his bite but sees another Porg that was eyeing him, scared and quivering. The sorrowful gaze got to Chewie, being annoyed as his belly rumbled and he let out another roar which made the Porg leave. 

The Wookie had glanced down at his dinner, having lost his appetite from seeing the Porgs’ faces, feeling like he had done something bad when he was only hungry. He was too busy feeling sorry for himself to notice Luke slipping through the moonlight and up the ramp of the freighter behind him. 

Through the corridor, Luke slowly walked, feeling like a ghost. The ring in his heels on the decking was achingly familiar, and so was the smell—a distinctive blend of fuel and coolant, with a faint undertone of burning circuitry from whatever was malfunctioning at the moment. 

Ever since Rey mentioned how they arrived on the Falcon, Luke’s thoughts had been straying to it, sitting on the ancient stone at the foot of the island, until finally he’d been unable to resist a visit. The Falcon had been him away from Tatoonie decades ago—a shell shocked farm boy hurled into the middle of a galactic civil war he’d wrongly assumed would never touch him, his step parents, or his friends. He wondered what that Luke Skywalker would think of what he’d become. 

Luke steps into the cockpit, standing behind the pilot’s chair that has been the closest thing to home for Han and turns on the lights, seeing the pair of golden dice hanging overhead and he gently removed them; turning them this way and that with his mechanical fingers. He then backs out in the main hold that was dim and quiet, Luke gazing at the holochess table and his eyes lingering on a familiar helmet and blast shield. He’d worn that for his very first lesson with a lightsaber, tormented by the hiss of a training remote that he couldn’t see and trying to figure out what Ben Kenobi meant by stretching out with his feelings. 

He sits at the game table, overwhelmed. This was where he’d wound up after Ben vanished, seemingly bisected by Darth Vader’s lightsaber blade. Where Leia has sought to console him as he sat in shock. He’d simultaneously seen Ben as his last link to his past on Tatooine and as the teacher who’s help him navigate the future. Without him, he’s been unmoored and adrift. 

A string of familiar interrogative beeps came from the shadows. 

“R2?” He asked, brightening, and a moment later the blue and white astromech rolled into view, chirping and whistling at length. “R2!” He chuckles, the droid moving over as he beeped excitedly. Luke exhales. “Yes. Yeah, I know.” R2-D2 continues, beeping angrily. “Hey, sacred island, watch the language.” 

The droid replied with a plaintive whine. 

“You did it because of her, didn’t you?” Luke questions, knowing for a fact that when R2-D2 had heard Elektra’s voice while in his coma, that’s what gave him the power to awake; to have her return to him. 

R2-D2 does a series of beeps again. 

“Old friend, I wish I could make you understand. I’m not coming back. Nothing can change my mind.” 

The droid turned its head around, activating his holographic projector and Luke’s breath caught at the sight of his sister as he’d first seen her—robbed in white, pleading for Obi Wan Kenobi’s help. 

“Years ago, you served my father in the Clone Wars. Now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the Empire. I regret that I am unable to present my father’s request to you in person, but my ship has fallen under attack and I'm afraid my mission to bring you to Alderaan has failed. This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.” 

The recording vanished and Luke eyes R2-D2. “That was a cheap move.” 

The droid then beeps smugly, the translation being, “Cheap but effective.” 

Elektra wasn’t able to sleep, her mind producing too many thoughts in order to rest, and with Rey being cold, she knew that she needed to do something. She checked the nearby huts, seeing if they were clean and able to be put to use. Elektra had gently sneaked over to the sleeping Rey, scooping her up in her arms without waking her and transferred her to a hut for a good night’s rest that would be more comfortable than a stone bench out in the chilly air. She then left her friend, grabbing a blanket from another hut and hung it up in the doorway to help and keep out the cold. 

Once Elektra turns, finishing up, she’s met face to face with Luke whose face was drawn and pale in the moonlight. “Tomorrow, at dawn,” he begins. “Three lessons for you and Rey. I will teach her the ways of the Jedi, and I’ll teach you why they need to end.” 

He goes to walk away and Elektra was about to let him, but she just spoke up. “What made you change your mind?” 

Luke took a moment to compose himself. “R2.” 

Elektra felt a little disheartened by his response but was happy that it was an actual answer of his, and that he wasn’t ignoring her like how he had for the past two days. She was about to head off to her own hut to find to sleep in for the night, but Luke continued on with his answer. 

“He awoke because of you. You came back, to apologize, to continue your own training. I felt it the moment you stepped foot on the island, and R2 did when he heard your voice.” 

Elektra felt her throat forming a lump, hard and harsh to swallow down. All she did was nod, understanding him. 

“We begin at dawn.”

Dawn on Ahch-To found the island shrouded in mist, tinted a fiery crimson by the rising suns. Elektra had woken, blinking at the sunlight that streamed in through her narrow window and rubbed her tired eyes, giving a small yawn. She then pauses, sensing something and begins eyeing the hut that she had found rest in. For a moment, she believed that someone was there with her; someone who was tall, pale, sitting quietly, with a dark bulbous shape hovering over it and touching its face. And it was almost as if she felt something pulling at her own cheek, tracing a line up from her jaw. 

She looks forwards again, seeing the figure and felt her breath get stuck in her throat. The figure is looking around too, picking up on her own presence and faces her. They both stare intently, Elektra realizing that this person she was seeing was her twin brother whose cheek was bisected by an angry red line—the wound she had branded him with in the snows of Starkiller Base. He had been getting his sutures removed and that’s what she had the sensation of. Kylo squints his eyes, to make sense of what he was seeing and Elektra fumbled about, wanting to throw something at him out of anger, frustration, but another look at his scar and her rage boils down to being terror. She shoots up onto her feet, bolting out of the hut. 

She began searching in all directions. Nothing. Just the morning chill and the cries of Porgs diving in groups from the cliff to bombard schools of fish below. Elektra then turns, seeing the back of her brother sliding out into view, trying to find her again as well and faces her once he became aware that she was behind him. 

“You’re not doing this. The effort would kill you.” He peered, curious. “Can you see my surroundings?” Kylo sounded like a student contemplating an interesting problem, and expecting her to work as his partner to solve it. It infuriated her. 

“Stop.” She replies, but he ignored her. 

“I can’t see yours. Just you.” He says, puzzled. “So no, this is something else.” 

That’s when Luke emerged from his hut, Elektra hearing him and glanced over her shoulder at him, panic accelerating her heartbeat. She had no idea what was happening, a part of her hoped that Luke could see him too but the other part didn’t want that because she didn’t want to be blamed. Elektra didn’t know if what she was seeing was only a twin thing within the Force or if she somehow unlocked some type of Jedi gate that desperately needed to stay shut. 

When she looks back, Kylo’s expression told her instantly what while he may not have seen Luke, he _had_ seen her reaction, understanding what it had meant as his eyes shift to glance where she was eyeing. 

“Luke.” He states, his eyes eager and hungry, like a predator catching its prey’s scent. 

“Bre, what are you doing?” Luke asks. 

Elektra’s attention returned to him, expecting to see anger and betrayal there, but Luke just looked amused. She follows his gaze, no longer seeing Kylo but rather at half a dozen aliens with broad faces and three toed feet, and their stout bodies were hidden beneath simple robes of beige and white. She knew that Luke was still waiting for an answer to his question and on instinct, she was going to tell him the truth but pauses, her knowing that would be a mistake. Elektra had come to mend their bond and learn to handle the Force just like Rey, so she needed to tell him something different. 

“I was wondering who they were.”

“Caretakers.” He informs her while Rey had exited from her hut, stretching. “Island natives. They’ve kept up the Jedi structures since they were built.” 

Elektra nods, looking back at the Caretakers as they removed fish from baskets, sharpened their knives, and washed clothes on metal washboards. She then turns, seeing Luke begin up the stairs that climbed higher up the mountain and goes in pursuit with Rey joining her. 

Across the grassy saddle above the huts and then up another set of winding stone steps that followed a rocky prominence that loomed above the island and the sea beyond. Elektra was still shaken by the manifestation of Kylo, in a place she had come to think of at least as Luke’s sanctuary, even if it wasn’t hers. She wondered if it was because she no longer wore the Massassi blood, that he was able to visit her in a face to face Force Connection. The mere thought had her skin crawling, itching to somehow obtain the black liquid to smear on her face again. 

The stairway ended in a cave in the side of the peak, the girls following Luke inside where an ancient mosaic was still visible in the middle of the stone floor but it wasn’t their destination. Luke led the girls out onto a pair of ledges, one high and one low. It was a dizzying vantage point from which the island seemed to fall away into the endless sea surrounding them. 

He eyes them for a moment, they do the same. Rey then spoke. “Master Skywalker, we need you to bring the Jedi back, because Kylo Ren is strong with the Dark Side of the Force. Without the Jedi we won’t stand a chance against him.” 

“What do you know about the Force?” He asks her. 

“It’s a power that Jedi have. That lets them control people, and . . . make things float.” 

“Impressive.” He replies without a beat. “Every word in that sentence was wrong. Lesson One. Sit here, legs crossed.” Luke motions to the rock with a grass blade in his hand. “Bre, you too.”

Rey and Elektra settled themselves on the higher ledges, arranging their legs; for Elektra, she was used to this but not Rey, she felt unnatural and oddly weird. 

“Bre, what do you know about the Force?” 

“It’s not a power you have,” she starts to say, thinking back to her days at his Jedi Temple, training in secret with him after nightfell. “It’s the energy between all things.” 

He nods in agreement, allowing himself to give a small smile since she had remembered. “Yes. It’s a tension, a balance, that binds the universe together.” 

“But what is it?” Rey questions. 

“Close your eyes.” Luke says. “Breathe. Now reach out.” 

Rey did as she was told and tentatively stretched out her right arm, fingers grasping for purchase. Elektra held back a laugh, smiling wide while Luke rolls his eyes, eyeing her hand then moved the blade of glass into her palm and shook it around. 

She gasps. “Ah! I feel something!” 

“You feel it?”

Excitedly, she nods. “Yes! I feel it!” 

“That’s the Force.” He whispers. 

“Really?!” 

“Wow, it must be really strong with you.” 

“I’ve never felt any—” Luke then whacked her with the reed, her yelping and eyes snapping open as she shook her hand to get rid of the pain. “Ow!” Rey eyes him, seeing that he had smacked her and had tickled her. She then got it, placing a hand over her heart. “You meant reach out like . . .” He then gives her a look. “I’ll try again.” 

Luke lets the reed go, having it blow away in the wind as Rey closed her eyes and his blue eyes scan to Elektra. “You, too. Close your eyes.” He then grabs her hand, placing it on the boulder that her and Rey sat on. “Feel. Breathe. Just breathe.” 

Elektra then closes her eyes, the cool surface of the rock just under her hand as the front section of her brain began to throb from her concentrating. 

“Reach out with your feelings. What do you see?” 

“The island.” Rey tells Luke. 

“Life.” Elektra says after a second, the images in her head were vivid, almost hallucinatory. She could sense herself, Rey, and the Caretakers pottering about near the huts, but there was so much more than that. She felt the presence of flowers, grasses, and shrubs. It then changes, seeing dead flesh and vegetable manner, sinking into the soil that hid bones and dry sticks from bygone seasons of the island.“Death and decay, that feeds new life.” 

“Warmth. Cold.” Rey goes again. “Peace. Violence.” 

“And between it all?” Luke asks. 

“A balance. An energy.” She tells him. “A Force.” 

“And inside you?” 

“Inside me . . . that same Force.” 

“And this is the lesson.” Luke explains. “That Force does not belong to the Jedi. To say that the Jedi die, the light dies, is vanity. Can you feel that?” She nods. 

Rey then softly opens her eyes, softly smiling at her now understanding what the Force was and gazes up at Luke. 

Elektra, on the other hand, began to feel something that Rey wasn’t picking up on; a certain thing that was calling out to her, and to her alone. “There’s something here. Beneath the island. A place. A _dark_ place.” She could see it, in her mind’s eye. Rocky flats by the sea, ominous and cold. With a dark hole in the rock. 

“Balance,” Luke informs her, a twinge of concern in his voice. “Powerful light, powerful darkness.” 

“It’s cold.” Elektra tells him, the ledge beneath her trembled, cracking under her as small pebbles by her hand began to levitate. “It’s calling me.” She whimpers, trying to fight against it as dust and rocks fell from the cliffs behind them. 

Rey backs up, standing next to Luke, flabbergasted at what was all happening. “What’s going on?” 

“Resist it, Bre.” Luke urges his niece, moving close to her face and motioned for Rey to keep away. “Bre? Bre!” 

Dimly, Elektra heard his voice calling to her but it faded away to nothing, until all she could hear was the roaring of water. She was standing on the cold, rocking shore from her vision, moving as if hypnotized toward a black hold before her—the source of that roar. The sound built, reaching a crescendo as water shot out of the rock and she felt it on her; drenching her. She screams, it retreating fast. 

With a start, Elektra found herself on the ledge, panting for air as her head throbbed and feeling as if she’d been dragged out of deep water. Her face was wet. At first, she thought it was imagination but her hair was dripping and she could taste salt on her tongue. 

“You went straight to the dark.” Luke utters, shaking his head. 

Elektra turns, her arms draped over the boulder that she was previously sitting on and stared at her uncle, shaking her head. “That place, it was trying to show me something.” 

“It offered you something you needed. And you didn’t even try to stop yourself.” He turns his back on her. 

“I saw everything.” Elektra exhales heavily. “But I didn’t see you. Nothing from you. No light, no dark. You closed yourself off from the Force.” 

Luke stares at her, his face pale and drawn. “I’ve seen this raw strength only once before, in Ben Solo.” Elektra then felt herself shrink from his words. “It didn’t scare me enough then. It does now. Especially with you.” 

From his gaze, Elektra felt herself tear up and was relieved when Luke walked away from her, into the darkness of the ancient temple. Being compared to her brother was a dangerous thing, hearing her own uncle say it was something so personal and humiliating. She sniffles, wiping her nose with her sleeve and Rey found her own heart hurting for Elektra; she crouches beside her and wraps an arm around the girl, resting her head on Elektra's shoulder. Elektra just leaned into her, no words needed to be shared in a tender moment like this.

In the Raddus, Finn sat with Leia’s beacon that had fallen from her, he kept on turning it over in his hands repeatedly. BB-8 had rolled up, seeing him looking glum and started chirping. Finn didn’t understand him and ignored him, still eyeing the beacon and BB-8 moans, thinking. He then sits up straight, projecting a hologram that captures Finn’s eye. 

It was of Finn in his I.C.U POD with Rey looking over him. _“We’ll see each other again. I believe that.”_ She then kisses his forehead. _“Thank you, my friend.”_

Elektra then comes over, taking his hand into hers. _“You saved me, you know that? I didn’t think there was a second chance for me until you came along. I just want to thank you for giving me purpose again.”_

The hologram ends and Finn eyes the beacon, then turns to BB-8. “Alright, that was kind of weird that you recorded that. But thank you.” He then pats the droid, getting up and running. 

In the briefing room on the Raddus’s emergency bridge, Poe had sat down among the crowd, sitting next to C’ai Threnalli and spotted D’Acy who stepped forwards before everyone. 

“General Organa, Leia, is unconscious but recovering. That’s the only good news I have. Admiral Ackbar, all our leadership, they’re gone.” Everyone begins murmuring while Poe drops his head sadly. “Leia was the sole survivor on the bridge. If she were here, she’d say save your sorrow for after the fight. To that end, she left clear instructions as to who should take her place. Someone she’s always trusted, and who has her full confidence.” 

Poe considered the likely line of succession. Undoubtedly Ackbar would have been next in line, but the old Alliance veteran was dead. So who? For a second, Poe was certain that D’Acy was looking at him. But it was Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo who stepped forward to stand next to D’Acy, leaving Poe unsure if he was feeling relief or disappointment. 

“Thank you, Commander. “She said, a mercurial half smile on her face. Her hair was washed in purple, and she wore a dress of dark olive green. “Four hundred of us on three ships. We are the last of the Resistance, but we’re not alone. In every corner of the galaxy, the downtrodden and oppressed know our symbol and they put their hope in it.” 

Poe studied the other officers. They looked skeptical, he thought. Or perhaps they were all in shock. 

“We are the spark that will light the fire that will restore the Republic. That spark, this Resistance, must survive. That is our mission. Now, to your stations. And may the Force be with us.” 

Everyone got up, heading to work while Poe leans to C’ai. “That’s Admiral Holdo? Battle of Chyron Belt Admiral Holdo?”

The Abednedo pilot shrugged, and mutters something in his own language. 

“Not what I expected.” Poe says, getting up and approaching Holdo. “Vice Admiral, Commander Dameron.” Holdo examined him. Her eyes struck him as shrewd. “Admiral, with our current fuel consumption there’s a very limited amount of time we can stay out of range of those Star Destroyers.” 

“Very kind of you to make me aware.” Holdo said. 

“And we need to shake them before we find another base. What’s our plan?”

“Our plan, Captain? Not Commander, yes? Wasn’t it Leia’s last official act to demote you? For your Dreadnought plan? Where we lost our entire bomber fleet?” 

Poe, astonished, found himself at a loss for how to defend himself. “Captain, Commander, fine. I just want to know what we’re doing.” 

“Of course you do.” Holdo’s eyes bored into his. “I understand. I’ve dealt with plenty of trigger happy flyboys like you. You’re impulsive. Dangerous. And the last thing we needed right now. So stick to your post, and follow my orders.” And with that, the new commander of the Resistance stalked off, leaving a stunned starfighter ace in her wake. 

Finn packed what he needed, sneaking to the Raddus’s escape pods and overheard a woman crying. He went straight pass, getting a pod ready and was so intent on his objective that he didn’t see how she noticed and followed him. 

“What are you doing here?” 

She was only a couple meters away, and the sound of her voice startled him. “Hey. Hi.” He smiled. “Uh, I was . . . You know, I was just . . .”

“You’re Finn. The Finn.” 

He was perplexed. “ _The_ Finn?”

“Sorry. I work behind pipes all day. Doing talking with Resistance heroes is not my forte.” She smiles, sniffling. “Doing . . . Doing talking. I’m Rose.” 

“Breathe.” Finn tells her, and she did. “I’m not a Resistance hero. But it was nice talking to you, Rose. May the Force be with you.” 

“Wow.” She managed to say. “You, too.” Finn nods to her happily and she runs up to him. “Okay, but you are a hero. You left the First Order, what you did on the Starkiller Base. When we heard about it, my sister Paige said, ‘Rose, that’s a real hero. Know right from wrong and don’t run away when it gets hard’. She said.” She then reached to her side, grabbing her stun gun. “You know, just this morning, I’ve had to stun three people trying to jump ship in these escape pods.”

“What?” Finn asks, shocked.

“They were running away.” 

“That’s disgraceful.” 

“I know.” She then turns off her stun gun, catching sight of his packed bag in the pod and Finn moves in front of her eyes so she wouldn't be able to see. 

“Uh, anyway. Gotta get back to what I was doing, so—”

“What are you doing?” 

“Uh, just . . . Doing some checks.”

“Checking the escape pods.” Rose says.

“No, it’s routine checks.”

“By boarding one, with a packed bag.” 

“Okay, listen—” Finn began but she had heard enough. She reached down, the motion practiced by now, unclipping the prod from her belt, raised it, and stunned him which shot him backwards and hit the escape pod. 


	8. Lesson Two

Finn’s new thing was waking up completely confused. He found himself lying on his back but for some reason, the world was sliding by around him. He lifts his head, which caused pain to flare at his temples, and saw the back of Rose’s jumpsuit. She had found a cart and was dragging it and him down a corridor on the Raddus. 

“I can’t move.” He mumbles, his mouth and tongue struggling to form the words properly. “I can’t move.” 

“I know.” 

“What happened?” 

“I’m taking you to the brig and turning you in for desertion.” 

“I was not deserting. I told you that.” He protested. 

She stopped guiding the cart, getting in his face. “My sister just died protecting the fleet. And you were running away.” 

“I’m sorry. But this fleet is doomed, and if my friends come back to it, they’re doomed, too. I’ve gotta get . . .” He then struggled, trying to move his arm and slings it over his chest to show the beacon to Rose. “I gotta get this beacon far away from here. Then they’ll find me and be safe.”

“You’re a selfish traitor.” 

“Look,” Finn said pleadingly. “We can’t outrun the First Order fleet.” 

“We can jump to lightspeed.” 

“They can track us through lightspeed.” 

That stopped Rose. “They can track us through lightspeed?” 

He nods. “Yeah. They’ll just show up thirty seconds later and we’d have blown a ton of fuel which, by the way, we’re dangerously short on.” 

Rose was still grappling with this latest bit of information. “They can track us through lightspeed.” She says again. 

“Yes! And they could—”He then began touching his teeth with his tongue. “I can’t feel my teeth. What did you shoot me with?” 

“Active tracking.” 

“What now?” Finn looks up from checking to make sure all his teeth were still there. 

“Hyerspace tracking is new tech, but the principle must be the same as any active tracker. So they’re—”

Finn realized the implication and finished her sentence. “—they’re only tracking us from the lead ship.” 

“But we can’t get to the tracker. It’s an A class process, they’ll control it from the main bridge.” 

“Well, I mean, yes, but every A class process has a ded—”

“—dedicated power breaker.” Rose joins in saying. “But . . . Wait, who knows where the breaker room is on a Star Destroyer?” 

Finn tapped his chest, inching his body to be close to Rose as she kneeled down to his height. “I’m the guy who used to mop it. Deep in the subengine complex. If I can get us there—”

“I could shut their tracker down.” 

“Yes. We’ve got to bring this plan to someone we can trust.” 

The someone that they told trust? It ended up being the one and only Poe Dameron. 

“Give that to me one more time. But simpler.” 

They were in General Organa’s chambers which had been converted into a makeshift medcenter. 

“The First Order is only tracking up from one Destroyer, the lead one.” Finn tells him. 

“So you blow that one up?” 

“I like where your head’s at, but no. They would just start tracking us from another Destroyer. But if we can sneak on board that lead Destroyer and disable the tracker without getting caught—”

“—they won’t realize it’s off from one systems cycle.” Rose cuts in. “About six minutes.” She finds the holoprojector built into Leia’s desk and activates it; displaying a schematic of the Mega Destroyer that Poe had been studying.

“Sneak on board. Disable the tracker. Our fleet escapes before they realize.” Finn nods to him. 

Poe considers it cautiously, Rose seeing him trying to calculate the odds. He then stands, strolling towards Leia who was on her gurney and surrounded by instruments and tended to by white-plated MD-15 medical droids. “How did you two meet?” 

“Just luck.” Rose remarks. 

“Yeah? Good luck?” 

“Not sure yet.” 

Poe chewed it over, his gaze looking over Leia as she laid unconscious. 

“Poe, we have to do this. It’ll save the fleet and it’ll save Elektra and Rey.” 

At the mention of Elektra, Poe frowned and placed his hand on top of Leia’s. He knew that Leia would want her daughter safe, she already lost Ben, Luke, and Han, Elektra didn’t need to be added to that list. 

“If I must be the sole voice of reason. Admiral Holdo will never approve this plan.” C-3PO announces. “In fact, it’s exactly the sort of brash heroics that would particularly infuriate her.” 

He then smiles broadly. “You’re right. The plan is need-to-know. And she doesn’t.” 

“That wasn’t exactly what I—”

“Alright.” He turns around, strolling towards Finn and Rose. “You guys shut down that tracker, and I’ll be here to jump us to lightspeed. How do we sneak the two of you onto Snoke’s Destroyer?” 

“We steal clearance codes.” Rose states.

“No, they’re bihexacrypted and rescrambled every hour. We can’t get through their security shields undetected. Nobody can.” Poe and Rose looked at Finn dolefully, then he thought of someone who just might be able to prove him wrong. 

“Could I do it?” Maz asks through the transmission. “Of course I could do it. But I can’t do it. I’m a little tied down right now.” She then began firing her blaster which startled the four. 

“Maz? What’s happening?” 

“Union dispute. You don’t want to hear about it. But lucky for you, there’s exactly one guy that I trust who can get you past that kind of security. A master codebreaker, an ace pilot, a poet with a blaster.” 

“Oh! It sounds like this codebreaker can do everything!” 

“Oh, yes. He can.” Maz says, letting herself remember some of the better times they had which made Finn and Rose pull up their noses, exchanging looks. “You’ll find him with a red plom bloom on his lapel rolling at the high stakes table in the casino on Canto Bight.” 

“Canto Bight?” Poe grumbles. “No, no. That’s . . . Maz, is there any way that we can take care of this ourselves?” 

Maz surveyed the battlefield and realized her position was about to be overrun. “Sorry, kiddo. This is a rarefied cracking. You want on that Destroyer, I only know one option. Find the Master Codebreaker.” She activates the jetpack she was wearing, cutting the transmission as she ascended. 

Finn eyes Poe as he sighs and holds out the beacon to him that pulsed. Poe studies it before looking to Finn, seeing his intense stare and he reaches out, taking it from him. Finn was on a mission, to help the fleet and save his friends, and Poe, he was with him through it all. 

Poe got Connix on the plan, Rose and Finn’s shuttle leaping into hyperspace and when Holdo asked about what had transpired, Connix brushed it off as nothing and gave a nod to Poe. He gives her one back, moving along and acting completely normal. 

Once the shuttle had emerged from hyperspace, they loomed over the desert planet of Cantonica, an almost featureless globe broken by a single blue sea that reminded Rose unsettlingly of an eye, staring into the void. “Okay. We get in, find this codebreaker, get out.”

“You know this town, Canto Bright?” 

“From stories.” Rose says. “It’s a terrible place filled with the worst people in the galaxy.” 

“Great.” Finn grumbles but he judged it too soon. 

He fell in love with Canto Bright the moment he flew over it. He gazed down in disbelief at the sea, dotted with sleek yachts, and the graceful curve of the crescent bay, lined with stately, gorgeous hotels. Beyond them, the town was a sparkling jewel. Its broad boulevards surrounded a modern complex of tile and black glass, bathed in shimmering light of every spectrum. Beyond the complex was a warren of low stone buildings, criss-crossed by narrow, warmly lit streets. 

Finn was too busy looking around that he forgot to look below. The shuttle plowed nose first into the beach, flinging BB-8 across the cockpit and wrenching Rose and Finn sideways in their harnesses before it shuddered to a stop. He looks up with guilt as Rose extracted herself from the copilot’s chair, wincing. She’d bitten her lip and was sure sure the restraints would leave bruises where they’d dug into her shoulders. 

“Well, we’re down in one piece, aren’t we?” 

BB-8 squawked derisively while Rose shook her head. 

They hurried up the beach to the boardwalk, then headed for the lights of the casino. Crossing the tree lined piazza in front of the Canto Casino and Racetrack, Finn nearly got hit by two luxury speeders that were muscular, powerful street machines with growling engines. One after the other, organic chauffeurs leaned out of their windows to make unlikely anatomical suggestions. Rose responded to the second chauffeur with a counter suggestion that would have demanded a lot more privacy, and made BB-8 hoot in admiration. 

Inside of the casino, they were surrounded by humans and aliens of every conceivable species, from diminutive Chadra-Fan to towering, long armed Dor Namethians. But all of them were dressed immaculately; Finn’s eyes leapt from sleek chadors and billowing gowns to elegant tuxedos and lavish waistcoats with trains held high by attendants. Heads bre coronets, eyes peered through lorgnettes held in position by repulsorlifts, ears, noses, and appendages Finn didn’t recognize dripped with jewels of every hue. The riot of color and wealth was so overwhelming that the most extraordinary outfit barely registered, every eye seemed drawn to Finn’s diry jacket and Rose’s maintenance jumpsuit while BB-8 rolls along behind them. 

“This place is great!” Finn exclaimed, looking at bartenders juggling cocktail shakers, dealers in green tarbooshes and matching vests offering congratulations or sympathies to those who play their games. 

Rose rolls her eyes. “Come on. Maz said this Master Codebreaker would have a red plom blossom on his lapel. Let’s find him and get out of there.”

As they scanned the crowd, a small, dark eyed alien in even wear staggered up to BB-8 and jammed a corn in a diagnostic slot in the droid’s tool bays. Confused and a little offended, BB-8 drew back and squawked at the drunken gambler who squinted at the droid and then put another coin in. 

“I wish Elektra and Rey could see this.” Finn mumbles to himself, Rose hearing and pushed through the throngs of guests, hunting at each table for the crimson splash of a red plom bloom. Frustrated, she finally jumped on a table so she could scan the entire floor. “What are you doing?” 

“Our mission, remember? Stop drooling all over the scenery, stop pining for Elektra and Rey, and get with it.” 

“I was not pining for Elektra and Rey,” Finn objects. 

Rose gave him a scornful look. “Heavy pining. Heavy. You were ready to abandon the Resistance for them. How can they mean more to you than a whole cause?” 

Finn looks away from a trio of jovial Suertons to glare at Rose. “I was raised in an army for a cause. Then I met Elektra and Rey. And for the first time, I had friends—people I cared about fighting for. That’s who I wanted to be.” 

He braced himself for another caustic remark, but Rose’s face softened. “When they come back, will the both of them be Jedis like in the stories? Brown robes, little rat tails?” 

That made Finn laugh. “No. Rey’s not the type and El, not going to happen.” 

“But Elektra’ll be different.” Rose states. 

“No.” He insisted, thinking about Elektra and all that he’s learned about her. “She’s been running from who she is because it scares her.” 

“She’s on her own path,” she told him. “You need to find yours.” 

“Thank you, wise master Rose.” 

“Any time.” He then smiled at her while Rose shook her head and continued looking. 

BB-8 stood stock still on the casino floor, beeping encouragingly. The inebriated alien stuck another coin into his tool bay and BB-8 warbled happily, flashing the diagnostic lights on his head, then offered a sad, droopy coo. Frustrated, the gambler dug in its bucket for yet another coin. 

Rose retreats to a bar on the side of the casino floor that was open to the evening breeze. A whisked bartender in a green and white livery readied a cocktail while gamblers sat in the shadows, studying decks of cards. “I think we’ve covered the whole casino.” Finn speaks. “Where is this guy?” 

Suddenly a blur of motion and a thunderous clatter filled the space behind the bar, rattling the glasses and bottles. “Were those what I think they were?” Rose wondered, rushing through a door and Finn following. 

Out on a balcony overlooking an oval racetrack, adjoining the casino, spectators were cheering, their attention directed below where twelve jockeys in iridescent livery were perched atop animals with tawny hides, long ears, and streaming tails. 

“What are those things?” Finn inspects them, admiring the way their ears, legs, and tails parted the air. They looked like flesh and blood versions of exotic model starfighters. 

“Fathiers.” Rose remarks, entranced. “I’ve never seen a real one.” 

“Look, this whole place is beautiful. I mean, come on. Why do you hate it so much?” He looks to her. 

“Look closer.” 

Finn sees a pair of electrobinoculars mounted on the balcony railing and peered through them. The fathiers were in the home stretch and he could see sparks from the jockeys’ electrowhips rise and fall, ruthless strokes aimed at extracting more speed from their exhausted mounts. 

Without taking her eyes off the racing Fathiers, Rose reached into the top of her jumpsuit and extracted a medallion she wore on a cord around her neck. “My sister and I grew up in a poor mining system. The First Order stripped our ore to finance their military, then shelled us to rest their weapons. They took everything we had.” 

Finn then turned the electrobinoculars, seeing a man whipping a fathier and a little boy trying to stop him but he just shrugged off and shoved to the ground. The man turns, threatening to whip the boy for trying to interrupt him. He slowly backs his face away from the sights, turning to Rose and saw her holding the medallion, pale with anger. 

“And who do you think these people are? There’s only one business in the galaxy that’ll get you this rich.”

“War.” 

“Selling weapons to the First Order.” Rose nods. “I wish I could put my fist through this whole lousy beautiful town.”

Finn didn’t know what to say. As he groped for an answer, BB-8 rolled up to them, his spherical body rattling strangely. The astromech beeped frantically. 

“Red plom bloom!” 

They ran in, seeing the Master Codebreaker and once they began to run up, they were stopped by men in uniform stunning them for parking their shuttle on the beach and began taking them outside. 

It was raining on Ahch-To, Rey was in the Falcon’s cockpit with Chewbacca who was fussing with the freighter’s hypertransceiver while Porgs were surrounding him; perched on the dashboard and watching the Wookie work. Elektra was outside, walking the shore, allowing herself to get soaking wet as she hugged herself and trekked back and forth. She had needed time to herself, to think about what she had done and felt herself getting emotional. There was so much that she was feeling and yet, she was keeping it all in. It was one of her worst flaws. Elektra was always quick to confront those who annoyed her or were complete jerks, but when it came to someone who she cared about, she’d strike a match within her own home and lock the doors so no one could see the fire that was taking hold. 

The girl comes to a sudden stop, something tickled at her awareness and she felt the dread, turning to stare out at the grey sea. Kylo was staring at her and finally, she no longer could handle the flame, it released and latched out. “Why are you here?!” She snaps, screaming at him over the pouring, pelting rain. 

He peered at her, eyes intent. “You have that look in your eyes, from the forest.” 

“You can’t be here.” She shudders, trying to get her anger under control and shakes her head repeatedly. “You can’t be here.” This time, Elektra whimpers. 

“You found him.” Kylo states, amused. “How’s that going?” 

Elektra didn’t reply. 

“Not what you expected, right? I could’ve told you that.” 

“He looked at me like I was . . . Like I was a monster, because I reminded him of you.” She remarks. 

He came within a meter or two of Elektra, and she wondered what would happen if she refused to move and they intersected. Would she find herself in his mind again, and have to endure his presence in hers? Could they actually touch, across a galaxy? 

“You’re calling me a monster?” Elektra stares at him, finding his eyes full of hurt. Hurt and conflict. “Because I am.” Kylo says, no menace is his voice, only misery. 

And then he was gone, leaving her watching the waves breaking on the stone. Elektra stares into the heaving sea, no sure what she was searching for, then felt another tingle of awareness. She turns, looking up at the island, up into the rain, and sees Rey. 

In the metal heart of the Supremacy, Kylo stood and eyed the place where Elektra had been. He felt something strange on his face, wiping it with his hand and glances down at his gloved hand. There was water on the palm. He stared at it, then balls his hand into a fist to hide it from his sight. 

When the rain had stopped and the suns came out, shining down on the island, Rey stood opposite of an outcropping rock, practicing sparring with her staff. On Jakku, she rarely neglected such practice, she needed to defend herself against threats ranging from marauding Teedos to fellow scavengers willing to kill for valuable bit of salvage. She’d let things slide since arriving on the island, thought, and now she wished she hadn’t. She was rusty, for one thing. But the exertion also helped blow away the fog that enveloped her. 

Elektra watched, finding Rey’s skill mesmerising while she didn’t allow herself a breather until she was sweating freely and her shoulders and arms ached. She stands, giving her a clap and a “bravo”. 

Rey lets out a hearty laugh, leaning on the staff. “Bit under performance. But I appreciate the enthusiasm.” She then pauses. “You want to try?” 

“With the staff?” Rey’s eyes linger down to Elektra’s waist and Elektra follows her sight, seeing Luke’s lightsaber still clipped onto her belt. 

Rey was wanting Elektra to face the truth of who she was, to accept the role of being a great Jedi. She believed in Luke Skywalker but even more in Elektra because she knew Elektra still had a chance to make things right and she wanted her to know who she was, and where she belonged even if Rey couldn’t do that herself. Elektra had something that Rey could never get, and how she desperately wanted Elektra to know that. It was a gift and Elektra was afraid of it, Rey knew that too, but maybe all she needed was a shove in the right direction. 

Elektra ignites the lightsaber at her side as Rey steps back, noticing how different it felt in her hands unlike before in the forest. It was alive, as if something inside of it was simultaneously focusing on her strength; her sense of energy around her felt sharpened, and the song of the blade seemed to resonate with the currents of the Force surrounding her, amplifying them. Luke snuck down the stone steps, seeing Elektra with the lightsaber and like Rey, his eyes widens and he makes sure to keep track of her every move.

She waves it in front of her, then around her head before resting and adjusts her hold on the hilt; her blade pointing backwards. She crosses across her body in an arch, the blade swinging outwards as she twists her body and joins in her left hand to grab the hilt and thrusts it back to her right side then straight outwards in a swift postion. Elektra then goes full force, battling from side to side, moving it back and swinging it upwards from the left and over to the right before striking downwards to the left. 

Luke’s eyebrows knit together, him recognizing these movements and steps closer to make sure that he was actually seeing what he thought he was seeing as Elektra and the lightsaber moves as one through thrusts and parrying, wheeling and weaving; until the distinction blurred between weapon and wielder. 

Elektra swings back to the right, her body twisting with her before facing forwards again and her arms dipping straight down to the left. Her knees bend, her side swiping the lightsaber fiercely then she stands, gnashing her teeth as she became more aggressive and seemingly powerful. And that’s when it clicked for Luke; Elektra was displaying the exact same fight pattern as her brother, Ben, despite never having been taught. Their bloodline was naturally gifted, and the twins in the family were as well. Luke and Leia were able to communicate through telepathic messages and sometimes, they could feed off the strength of one another to keep them going. But it seemed like the Solo twins had their own set of powers within the Force, from what Luke was witnessing. 

Elektra had somehow tapped into Kylo’s fighting skill, as if she downloaded all his fighting techniques like a droid, and programmed herself to learn them effortlessly. It terrified yet amazed him all at once because firstly, Elektra was in tune and was being merciless with her movements and secondly, she wasn’t doing it out of anger or confidence. It was purely the strength of character, of training. Elektra was disciplining herself; wanting to gain control over the power she was able to use. 

She twirled the lightsaber behind her back as she faced forwards, twirling her body around and spun the lightsaber above her head and lashed out with it. The lightsaber bisected the outcropping that Rey and her had been mockfighting and she stumbled back, realizing her mistake and saw how the top half slid away; vanishing over the edge of the cliff. Dirt and rock flew into the air, along with tufts of grass and indignant Porgs. Elektra peeked over the cliff, seeing the massive stone had obliterated a Caretaker’s cart and left a broad scar all the way down to the sea. 

Below, two Caretakers look at each other in dismay, then stared up at her confused. She deactivates the lightsaber. “Sorry!” She calls out, feeling horrible and clips the weapon back onto her belt and steps away from the ledge. 

Someone clears their throat and she spins on her heel, staring up at Luke who motions for them to follow him up to where they were previously in the early morning and began his journey up while they followed. 

The suns were dripping towards the horizon as the three entered the Jedi temple, facing one another across the font in the center of the ancient space. “I’ve shown you that you don’t need the Jedi to use the Force,” Luke begins. “So why do you need the Jedi Order?” 

“To fight the rising darkness.” Rey says. “They kept the peace and protected the light in the galaxy for a thousand generations . . . and I can tell from your look that every word I just said was wrong.” 

Luke smiled and studied the mosaic in the floor. “You’ve got ‘thousand generations’ right. Lesson Two. Now that they’re extinct, the Jedi are romanticized; deified. But if you strip away the myth and look at their deed, from the bright of the Sith to the fall of the Republic, the legacy of the Jedi is failure. Hypocrisy. Hubris.” 

“That’s not true!” Rey protested, staring at him in shock. 

“At the height of their powers they allowed Darth Sidious to rise, create the Empire, and wipe them out. It was a Jedi Master who was responsible for the training and creation of Darth Vader.” 

Elektra’s eyes flicker to Luke, her automatically knowing that he was meaning Obi-Wan Kenobi. 

“You, a Jedi, saved him.” She recalls. “He was the most hated in the galaxy but you saw that there was conflict in him. You believed that he wasn’t gone, and that he could be turned.” 

“And I became a legend. For many years there was balance. I took no Padawans, and no darkness rose. But then I saw Ben—”

And that’s what drew Elektra away. She rolled her eyes, shaking her head and walked out to the ledge where Luke had her and Rey sit before she cracked it and had her touch of the Dark. The meditation ledge. She just looked out to the horizon, high above the sea, closing her eyes and still listened in as Rey got close to Luke for him to tell her the story. 

“Ben, my nephew and Bre’s brother, he had that mighty Skywalker blood. She did too, but him . . . In my hubris I thought I could train him, I could pass on my strengths. I might not be the last Jedi.” His eyes were far away now, interrogating the past and Rey wondered if he relieved those dark times every day, brooding on the top of the island as when she’d first met him. “Han . . . was Han about it. But Leia, she trusted me with her children. I took him, her, and a dozen students and began a training temple. And by the time I realized I was no match for the darkness rising in him it was too late.” 

“What happened?” 

“Leia blamed Snoke, but it was I who broke that family. I failed. Because I was Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master. A legend.” He said that last word as if it were something terrible; a burden and a curse. But Rey held his gaze. 

“The galaxy may need a legend. I need someone to show me my place in all this. And you didn’t fail Kylo, he failed you. I won’t. Elektra won’t either.” 

Elektra had opened her eyes, feeling something coming. Six ships, crude constructions of wood, were arrowing through the water toward the island. She tensed, calling for Luke and he stepped out with Rey at his side. 

“It’s a tribe from a neighbouring island. They come once a month to raid and plunder the Caretakers’ village.” 

That made Elektra’s heart pound, her eyes watching the ships bearing slightly north of them, perfectly positioned to skirt the headlands and land in the bay where the Caretakers’ huts huddled by the sea. 

“We’ve got to stop them!” Elektra looks to Rey who agrees in nodding, her grabbing her staff and they began to head off but Luke stopped them while he still stood on the ledge. 

“Do you know what a true Jedi would do right now?” He said as if they had all the time in the world. “Nothing.”

“This is _not_ a lesson! They’re going to get hurt! We have to help them!” 

“If you meet the raiding party with force, they’ll be back next month with greater numbers and greater violence. Will _you_ be here next month?” 

Elektra didn’t know if the last line was a jab at her having left his Jedi school or not, but it just fueled her frustration to a new high as she watched the ships cutting through the water, every moment bringing them nearer to the helpless village. Her senses were aflame, bombarding her with images; shattered eggs, crashing waves, splintered bones, and fire in the night. 

“That burn inside of you, that anger thinking what the raiders are going to do?” Luke questions. “The books in the Jedi library say ignore that. Only act when you can maintain balance. Even if people get hurt.” 

_No, to hell with that._ Elektra shoved past Luke, squeezing through the entrance to the temple, and took off at a run down the ancient stairs. 

“Bre!” Luke calls and Rey goes after, too. “Wait! Rey!”

The stairs were taking too long, so Elektra skidded down the slope leading down from the temple, then raced across the top of the island, scattering nesting porgs and reaching to her side for Luke’s lightsaber while Rey was right at her side with her quarterstaff. 

They ran past the tree housing the Jedi tomes and reached the winding track that led down to the Caretakers’ village. It was growing dark and Elektra was breathing hard. She could see the lights below her and Rey, and through the gloom, the shapes of the raiders’ ships approaching the rocky shore. Fear lent Elektra an additional burst of speed—fear and anger. Luke told them the raiders came every month. That meant this happened many times during his exile. How many nights had he stood at the crest of the island, doing nothing, while those who served him were left to suffer? It had hurt Elektra’s heart even more. 

She had watched too many villages being destroyed by the First Order, the Honsnian system burn, and known of too many deaths. But this one village could be and would be spared. At least in this one tiny corner of the galaxy, there would be some justice. 

Rey and her hurtle a tide pool and Elektra’s finger found the lightsaber’s activator, its light tinting the water around her blue. Its weight felt like a promise of retribution, and the ancient Jedi weapon’s hum sounded eager to her ears. 

As they neared the village, kicking up loose rock, she heard screams and cries ahead. Elektra slashed through a gate made of driftwood, lightsaber raised over her head and Rey at her side with her staff up to her chest and posed to hit an oncoming attacker. But they were both in shock. 

Tables groaned with platters of fish, roe, and spiced seaweed. Caretaker matrons were dispensing grog into stone mugs and passing them into a crowd of males and females, dancing energetically on their spindly legs to the sound of horns and drums. The raiders, the girls saw, were the same species as the Caretakers but wearing woolen caps and warm, colorful coats designed for seafaring. They had interrupted a party. 

The partygoers turned to behold Elektra and Rey poised like war goddesses, teeth bared and weapons raised. They greeted the girls with joyous cries, swinging lengths of kelp studded with phosphorescent bladders above their heads. Rey lowers her staff, giving a soft look to Elektra and Elektra halfheartedly waves the lightsaber in the air and they cheered even more loudly. 

Elektra’s sides hurt and her adrenaline had leaked away, leaving her feeling shaky and faintly sick as she turned off the lightsaber and clips it back to her belt. Rey then spots Chewie on the fringe of the crowd with a mug of something and one hairy fist resting on R2-D2’s dome. The Wookie called out a cheerful greeting and the astromech beeped. 

“Seriously?” Rey asked. 

It had been half an hour at most when Elektra was staring out over the moonlit ocean, still furious, when Luke finally made his way down the slope into the village. She turns to him. 

“Raid and plunder?” 

“In a way.” 

“Was this a joke?” 

At least he had the good grace to sound sheepish. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think you’d—” he then broke into a laugh. “You just ran so fast.” 

“I thought they were in danger.” Elektra felt the tears swell up in her eyes as her voice raised. “I was just trying to do something.” 

“And that’s what the Resistance needs. Not an old failed husk of a religion. Do you understand now?” 

“I understand that across the galaxy our real friends are really dying!” She shouts at him, brokenly and Luke loses his smile. “I came here to apologize to you, to make up for leaving, to continue my training!” A few tears release, slipping down her cheeks. “That legend of Luke Skywalker that you hate so much? Rey believes in it. And I do, too! Apparently we were both wrong.” A pause. “And Ben was right.” 

And with that, she left him alone on the edge of the partying, backlit by the moonlit sea. 

Rey saw her walking off by herself and when she tried to speak with Elektra, she just shrugged her off and wanted to be alone. Rey knew it was best not to pry but she still understood the amount of emotional pressure she was under. 

Elektra walks across the meadow atop the island, beneath a full moon like a lantern. Her eyes wandering to the outcropping of the Jedi temple, a pale spike against the night, atop the winding thread of the stone stairs. Then, like a change in the wind, she felt a familiar presence which caused goosebumps to break out on her arms. 

“I’d rather not do this now.” She says, without turning. 

“Yeah, me too.” Said Kylo. 

Steeling herself, she turns, determined not to let her adversary into her head. This time, she would make him answer for what he’d done. “Why did you hate dad?” 

Kylo was stripped to the waist in his chambers. The angry scar she’d given him in their duel snaked down his face and neck and across his collarbone. “I didn’t hate him.”

“Then why?” Elektra demanded, feeling the tears returning to her eyes. 

“Why what?” He asks and she stays quiet. “Why what? Say it.” 

“Why did you kill him?” She sobs. “I don’t understand.” 

“No?” Kylo’s curiosity was genuine—and infuriating. “Our parents threw us away like garbage.” 

“They didn’t.” 

“They did.” He nods. “But still, we can’t stop needing them. It’s our greatest weakness.” His gaze was hungry and knowing. 

Elektra forces a laugh. “So you got rid of him because that?” A scowl appears on her face. “I couldn’t do anything but watch him die! Do you have any idea how that felt? Do you know how _he_ felt?” She questions him. “He was aware, he was in pain, he knew that you did it. He knew that the person that he tried to save killed him.” 

“Let the past die.” Kylo remarks. 

Elektra shakes her head. “You’re not listening.” 

“Let the past die.” He repeats himself, nodding. “Kill it, if you have to. That’s the only way to become who you’re meant to be.” 

And then he was gone, leaving her alone in the night. Alone, but knowing that she had one final thing to do. Jaw set, Elektra strode off across the rocky highlands, in the opposite direction from the Falcon.


	9. What They Grow Beyond

Elektra stood on a long, flat outcropping of stone that emerged from the grassy slopes of the island to end in a low cliff above the sea. In the center of the stone was a gaping hole in the rock, surrounded by reddish moss bleached grey by the moonlight. 

She carefully approached the place she’d seen in her vision on the meditation ledge, the one that had been trying to show her something. Luke had warned her that accepting its offer would be yielding to the dark side and as much as that terrified her, Elektra just needed answers and she was desperate. 

Her eyes stared into the inky darkness of the hole. Bright as the moon was, it revealed nothing about what was below. The hole burbled and hissed, as if it were speaking to her. Elektra stoops down to examine the moss, and slipped. Slipped, or was dragged inside. She didn’t know if she cried out, or if it made a sound. 

She fell into water, the cold like a knife in her lungs. She struggled, feeling like a tidal wave had taken her over, the current strong for a minute but atlast, she kicked her legs and arms to the surface. Gasping and eyes stinging from the salt, she hauled herself out onto the slick, flat stone to see that she was in a cave. A long, narrow space that the sea had carved away beneath the lip of the cliff, creating a hidden place beneath the island, it existence revealed only by a blowhole where a vertical shaft has intersects the surface. The hole spat gouts of water at high tide but seemed to breathe when the tide was low, as it was now. 

Before her, the sea had ground and polished the walls of the cave until the stone was like a dark mirror, cracked by glossy. Elektra could see her reflection in it—a reflection repeated a thousand times in the stone’s labyrinthine facets, so they created a line of Elektras retreating from her gaze. 

Elektra focused in the mirror and realized it was staring back. The Force was quavering in response to the approach of something. She could hear herself breathing, slowly and raggedly as she reached forwards towards her reflection’s hand. Then her breathing quickened as she realized she was inside the stone, within the mirror world, with several Elektras between her and the soaked, shivering girl standing on the ledge in the cave. 

Then that Elektra was gone and a hundred Elektras stood between her and the slim on the ledge. She turned her head and all those Elektras obediently did the same, each one’s turm coming a moment after the one before it, until all were staring along with her deeper into the dark stone. 

Elektra knew she had to go deeper, that the world inside the stone only seemed to go on forever. It was leading somewhere, and if she only had the courage to follow that secret place would show her what she had come to see—and what she was most afraid to know. 

There were Elektras deeper in the stone, part of the line yet ahead of her. She told herself to follow them, to become them, to ignore the voice in her head that kept babbling that she would be trapped forever, down here in the darkness at the secret heart of the island. 

She followed the line of Elektras, willing the surreal succession to end, until it finally did. Until she was the one breathing hard and staring at a large, round, clouded mirror of polished stone like the one that had called to the girl in the cave. 

In front of the stone, gazing into its depths, she heard the other Elektras behind her speak in whispers of what she was going to ask even before she did herself. 

“Show me who I am.” She begs. “Who am I?”

She stretches her hand out, touching the stone and the clouded surface of the mirror seemed to ripple, its darkness melting away. She saw two dark figures beneath its surface. As her heartbeat hammered in her ears, she smiles softly knowing that the silhouettes belonged to her parents Han and Leia but then, the two became one. The silhouette shifted, resembling her brother, dressed in his robes and helmet, and that made her breathing go harsh. The figure then lifts its hand up, meeting her fingertips and the clouded surface began clearing, branching over the figure’s face to show her the girl from the sea cave; staring back at her. It was herself. 

Elektra lowers her hand and her reflection did the same. She was given no answer about who she was, what path was laid out before her, and it made her so upset. She thought—no, she believed that this place would give her an answer and it didn’t. 

Her fingers began balling up and into her palm, making a fist and it rattled with anger before she let herself be consumed by sadness and loneliness. She whips herself around, throwing a punch at the one cave wall and chipping off chunks of it. Her chest raised and fell in torrents, her face in a scowl as she exhaled deeply; she felt no ache in her hand because the Force was fueling her with hatred and once she realized that, it melted away. 

Cold and dark, her tears began falling and she lifted her head and knew that she needed to talk about the cave with someone who understood how solitude and loss could eat away at you until there was nothing left. 

Luke stood outside the temple, bathed in moonlight. Below him, the waves chewed ceaselessly at the margins of the island, continuing the slow, patient work of dissolving it into the sea from which it had sprung. Above him, the stars were cold lights, following their fixed and eternal courses. 

He sits, legs protesting as he forced them into position. He puts his hands on the rocky ledge, where as many Jedi had meditated over the cons, and closed his eyes. 

The wind filled his ears, the island’s constant companion. It was a whisper now, the low conservation of autumn breezes instead of the whine of winter of the howl of a summer storm. He could hear the night birds calling as they rode high above him, and the metronome calls of insects from the grasses. Behind him, in the ancient temple, the still surface of the water in the font began to ripple and dance. 

The sounds grew to a crescendo, a thunderclap that was followed by a bewildering, blinding rush of images. Luke’s body felt like it was on fire. He knew it wasn’t. He accepted the feeling, denying it power over him, and then let it ebb. In its place came a familiar sense of warmth, of belonging, of finding himself part of an endless lattice of connections that held him and everything else, each fixed in its proper place. 

A Force. 

That aspect of the Force, the Jedi had called it the living Force, was ceaseless and ever-renewing. But the Jedi had spoken of another aspect—the Cosmic Force. It had an awareness, a purpose, and a will. A will that had been silent, dormant after the demise of the Sith, only to wake once again during Luke’s exile. A will that Luke finally allowed himself to acknowledge once again. 

More confident now, Luke stretched out with his feelings, his awareness slipping lightly through the island’s tumult of life. He found Elektra instantly, she was like a beacon in the Force, burning so brightly that everything around her seemed attuned to her. And Luke sensed another familiar presence in his awareness. 

Aboard the Raddus, an MD-15 medical droid raised its blank white head. Its patient’s heartbeat had suddenly surged, accompanied by spikes of brain activity. The droid focused its photoreceptors on the subject, motionless on the gurney. Her eyes moved beneath their lids. 

“Luke,” Leia whispered. 

He opened his eyes. “Leia.” 

Elektra had found Rey in her hut, sitting and began to tell her about the cave and how she was somehow transferred into the mirror world and saw the many different versions of her standing in a huge line. 

“I should have felt trapped or panicked. But I didn’t. This didn’t go on forever. I knew it was leading me towards something. And that, it would show me what I had come to see.” She sniffles, eyeing Rey. “You thought you’d find answers here, I thought I would too. But I was wrong. Ben was right. He always is.” 

Rey leans forwards, getting closer towards Elektra. “I did find something. You did, too. Even if you don’t see it.” She speaks, her heart falling into the pit of her stomach at the sight of Elektra being so hurt. “You may not know what your path is, but you have found yourself. You’re no longer Elektra Ren, you’re becoming Bre Solo again.” 

Elektra shook her head. “No, I can’t be.” 

“Why do you say that?” 

“Because of what I did. What I didn’t stop.” A pause. “That night . . .”

Rey was so lost, she had no idea what she was speaking about but Elektra was hurt over it and she reached forwards, holding her hand and that’s when Rey felt it. Smoldering heat in the cheeks yet icy coldness in the chest. Fear and betrayal accompanied by a racing heart and tear laced eyes. The smell of smoke was in her nose, filling her lungs to the point that she resisted the urge to cough. Rey removes her hand calmly, excusing herself before patting Elektra’s shoulder and began trekking outside as the rain returned to the island. 

Alone. Elektra was alone again and she felt herself tearing up, sitting in front of the fire that Rey had made and trying to keep warm in her soaked clothes and a blanket that she wrapped around her shoulders. _Alone._ She reminded herself again. She couldn’t go back to Leia without Luke, she couldn’t get comfort and trust from Luke because of that night at the Jedi Temple, and she couldn’t just return to the First Order. 

Elektra felt stuck. Stuck and alone. 

In the Force, she had felt him. The connection between them was so raw and powerful that it reminded her of touching a live wire in the wreckage of a starship. She had closed her eyes, opened them, and found Kylo Ren there—right next to her where she sat on the stone bench, where Rey previously was. At the sight of him, she’d felt relief surge through her. 

As kids, he was always there to comfort her; at her side and to hold her tight, telling her that everything was alright and that it’d be them against the world. Oh, how those days were so long ago. 

“You’re not alone.” He insisted, and she believed him because despite everything that he has ever done, not once has he lied to her. 

She knew that he felt she was feeling. A lovely little gift of being Force sensitive twins, connected through everything. And from that, she sensed his emotions and knew his thoughts even without needing to invade his mind. Not that she ever would but, it was just that bond of family that told her everything she needed to know. 

“Neither are you.” She informed him. “It isn’t too late.” 

She tentatively raises her hand towards him, expecting to see their hands go through each other and wondering if she would feel it in the Force somehow. Kylo slowly removes his black glove, his hand reaching out towards her and their fingers actually touched; them both jolting by the contact. They held each other for what felt like minutes, both sensing each other through their bond. 

Elektra hadn’t shaked nor even hugged her brother in over five years, so this moment was something else. She was able to see the conflict within him, that there was good and the good began breaking through even more after he had killed their own father. She was witnessing it first hand through her own mind: all the emotions that had ran through him and how he was terrified when she began fighting him in the forest. 

Kylo had glanced in her as well, he rummaged through her mind effortlessly and saw all sorts of things which gave him insight into why she had her own personal goal with finding Luke—why she no longer stood beside him. 

Luke Skywalker walked into the hut, finding Elektra and Kylo with their hands clasped, staring into each other’s eyes; reading one another. 

“Stop!” He yells, and flings out his hand. A burst of power hurled every stone of the hut outward from in center, scattering them around the bench where Elektra and Kylo sat in astonishment. 

Elektra’s hand closed on nothing and she stared at Luke as rain pelted them, standing on her feet in shame. 

“Leave this island.” Luke said through gritted teeth. “Now.” Then he turned and walked away, just as he’d done the day she arrived with Rey, bearing the lightsaber that had called to her. 

Elektra gets to her feet, following after Luke and was about to speak until Rey had whacked Luke in the back with her quarterstaff. Down he fell onto the ground, turning up and stared up into the rain, surprised as he saw her teeth bared. 

“Did you do it?” Rey asks. “Did you create Kylo and Elektra Ren?” 

Luke got to his feet and Rey saw immediately that nothing had changed, he was still going to walk away from her and Elektra, retreating to brood in silence. Furious, she swung her staff at him again but Luke reached out, the motion a blur, and a length of lightning rod flew off the roof of one of the huts. Before Rey could blink he had intercepted the strike of her staff, the impact sending a jolt up in her forearms, and knocked her backward. 

“Rey, stop!” Elektra shouts to her, hoping that she’d listen but Rey didn’t. 

Ret sprang back at him, her staff and his improvised weapon spinning and colliding as the rain poured down. She pressed the attack. The staff had never felt more comfortable in her hands, so much like a part of her. Her confidence grew and she smiled wolfishly as she saw the surprise on Luke’s face. 

But it was a fleeting thing. Quicker than she could follow, he parried her thrust and continued the motion, hitting her in the back which earned a yelp from her mouth. before flipping the staff out of her hands to clatter on the stones, leaving her defenseless. Rey then reached out, feeling the Force alive and hungry around her, and found the weight of her staff back in her hands and she wielded it high, Luke giving ground and staring up at her. 

“Tell me the truth.” She lowers her weapon. “What had happened that night?” 

_Luke Skywalker looks down at his nephew, Ben Solo, who was no longer a boy but not yet a man. He has come into his and his twin sister, Bre Solo’s chambers, at night, and now stands over him. Ben was asleep, so was Bre, and the Force was aboil with danger. Worry shadows Luke’s face as he extends his hand, reaching out with the Force—reaching into the sleeping Ben’s mind._

_The boy remains still, his face untroubled. And Luke’s eyes remained on him, seeing fire, and ruin, and the sightless eyes of the dead. And he can hear screams, and the howls of lightsabers, and the roar of explosions._

_Darkness, expanding from this slim, dark haired boy to shroud everything and the cacophony of terror that will accompany it. Luke draws his hand back, as if burned. The Force around Ben has always been shot through his veins of darkness, but what he’s seen is beyond anything he’d feared to find._

_Luke removes his lightsaber from his belt and ignites the blade, his eyes grave and fit lit with green. But then he looks at Ben and the brief, almost unwilling thought is gone. He cannot bring his lightsaber down on his sister’s son, on his niece’s brother, while he sleeps._

_Movement was heard and he glanced over, seeing that Bre had awoke and was staring at him with intense, scared eyes. Luke knows it was too late, he had already failed his students; his family because Bre, and now Ben, were staring up at him with freight and awareness. Their powers with the Force are already immense, and still growing. And the twins are Skywalkers._

_They know what Luke thought._

_They know what Luke saw._

_They know what will be._

_Desperate, Ben’s hand reaches out, not toward Luke but beyond him, to the lightsaber he has constructed with the help of his sister. Willing it into his hand, its blue blade killing a blow aimed at his Master. Luke’s own blade meets Ben’s and the locked lightsabers buzz and spark. Then Ben reaches up toward the ceiling with his free hand, compelling the stones to come crashing down on Luke’s head._

“I saw darkness. I’d sensed it building in him. I’d see it at moments during his training and with Bre, she was just filled with this white light. That night, I looked inside of Ben . . . and it was beyond what I ever imagined. Snoke had already turned his heart. He would bring destruction, and pain, and death . . . and the end of everything I love, including Bre, because of what he will become.” 

Elektra and Rey listen to him, the rain still falling down harshly. 

“And for the briefest moment of pure instinct . . . I thought I could stop it. It passed like a fleeting shadow. And I was left with shame and with consequence. And the last thing I saw was Bre waking up, looking at me with terror and the eyes of a frightened boy whose master had failed him. When I came to, the temple was burning. He had a handful of my students, slaughtered the rest, and Bre . . Oh, Bre. I begged her to stay. She had the makings of a great Jedi, but she left with him.” 

“We never took any with us. They left because he told them too.” Elektra then steps up, kneeling in front of her uncle. “And I knew that there was still good in him. You thought that his choice was made,” she replies, her voice equal parts gentle and insistent. “It wasn’t. There’s conflict in him. If he were turned from the dark side, that could shift the tide. This can be how we win.” 

Luke turned his eyes to her. His gaze bleak and he shakes his head, frowning at her because Leia was right. Elektra was the splitting image of Luke when he was young and training to be a Jedi. He kept on denying it for himself but now, he couldn’t unsee it. There were too many similarities between them, just like with Anakin and Ben. Darth Vader and Kylo Ren. 

“This is not going to go the way you think.” He warns her. 

Elektra nods slowly, taking into consideration what he spoke but found that common ground of what he had just been thinking. “You believed that there was good in Darth Vader, you saw the conflict and you saved him. Dad compared Ben to Vader all this time, and Mom, she compared me to you. We both want to save someone from the dark because we have hope.” She takes a moment to collect her thoughts, thinking back to when she touched her brother’s hand. “I saw his future. I saw it, as solid as I’m seeing you now. If I go to him, my brother will turn.” 

“Bre, don’t do this. You cannot go.” 

“Mom, Finn, Poe . . . They’re going to die if I don’t.” 

And there it was. One of the parallels of Luke and her. He remembered telling Obi-Wan the exact same thing whenever he tried to leave his training with Master Yoda to go and rescue his friends. 

Elektra stands, unclipping the lightsaber from her belt and holds it out to him as one last offering—one last plea for him to join her. Luke looks away and Elektra knew that he would, lowering her arm and taking in a deep breath. “He’s our last hope then.” 

Elektra places the lightsaber back onto her belt and Rey nods, the two girls heading down the stairs and straight for the Falcon. 

At Canto Bight Police Department livery, Rose shouts through the gloom of the cell block, saying how she and Finn needed to be released or at least be granted access to an attorney. She sagged against the bars and Finn wedged himself in the corner of the cell, beginning to push and pull at the lock mechanism; trying to remember long ago infiltration techniques from his First Order training by Elektra. 

Rose placed in tight circles, sizing up their surroundings yet again. As far as she could tell, the prisoner with whom they shared their cell was asleep or possibly dead, and that Finn’s lock picking was an exercise in stubbornness, not expertise. 

“So after that totally works, what’s our plan?” 

Finn strained with the lock and something beeped, making Rose look in surprise and wild hope, only to see an additional panel slide into place; covering the lock mechanism. Finn leaned against the wall and blew his breath out in frustration. 

“This thing that filed was our plan,” he says. “Without a thief to break us into that Destroyer, it’s shot. Our fleet’s out of time. We’re done. Which means Rey and Elektra are done.”

“Why did I trust you?” Rose demanded. 

“Baby face.” Finn reminded her. 

“You’re a selfish traitor.” 

Finn looks up. “Because I want to save my friends? Yeah, you’d do the same.” 

Rose shook her head. “I would not.” 

“No? If you had the chance, you wouldn’t have saved your sister?” 

That was too much. Rose turned, took two steps and before she could do anything, a new voice echoed throughout the cell. 

“What?” Rose asks, more annoyed than curious. 

Their fellow prisoner had sat up on the bench and was peering blearily at them. He was scruffy and tattered, from his rumpled stack of hair and unshaved face to his battered jacket and dirty black pants. 

“S-Sorry,” the man drawled. “Couldn’t help but overhear all the stuff that you were saying really loudly while I was trying to sleep. Codebreaker? Thief? I can do it.” 

“We’re not talking about picking pockets, okay?” Finn said, turning away from him with Rose. 

A feral grin split the man’s face. “Aww, yeah. D-D-Don’t let the wrapper fool you, friend. Me and the First Order codeage go way back. And, if the place is right, I can break you into old man S-S-Snoke’s boudoir.” 

The two study him, Finn shaking his head. “No.” 

Rose nods in agreement. “We’re . . . We got it covered.” 

The theif reached down and retrieved his boots and pawning his hat onto his head and making a vague attempt to straighten it. “Hatukga.” He curses, waddling over to the cell door with the stiff gait of someone hungover or still actively addled. He looked blearily at the lock while Finn watched, amused, and curious. 

He reached over, adjusted something, adjusted something else, and slapped the lock. The door slide open noiselessly and he strolled out into the cell block, leaving Rose and Finn staring gape mouthed at the open bars. 

“Did he just . . .”

“Yeah.” 

Rose and Finn exchanged stunned looks, getting up and running out. 

On either side of them, grimy humans and aliens pressed up against the bars of their cells, hollering to be let out, shouting encouragement, or simply reveling in a break in the monotony of captivity. Over the din, Rose heard shouts behind her. Finn skidded to a stop and she almost plowed into his broad back. Before she could protest, she spotted glow rods bobbing in the gloom ahead of them. 

They were trapped. 

Rose frantically glanced around, spotting a grating in the floor. A foul smell wafted up from it. She shouts for Finn to help her, the metal groaning and the grate came free. She scrambled down the rickety looking ladder into the darkness, Finn squeezing himself into the shaft above her. 

They found themselves in a stone swer, too low for Finn to stand without stooping slightly. Fortunately, there was only a trickle of fetid water flowing through the middle of the space. 

The tunnel ran on for about a kilometer, dimly lit by a strip of maintenance lightning. The smell grew steadily worse, until Rose’s eyes stung and she thought she would gag. Just as Finn was beginning to worry that the tunnel would never end, the encountered another ladder; one that emerged from a dark mound whose origins Rose could figure out easily. They scramble up the ladder, paying considerably less attention to where they placed their feet.

Rose and Finn were in a long, pillared hall of brick and stone, with wooden gates on either side of them and a floor littered with straw. Rose wrinkled her nose, there had been a strong smell up there, too. 

“Where are we?” Finn asks, looking off to the side to see a massive, milky white head appearing over the wooden gate next to him. It had wide, windlike ears, deep, worried looking eyes, and a short snout. 

Startled, Finn slipped and fell, winding up on the stable floor. He moaned but Rose ignored him. The animal was a fathier which caused her to smile happily. More heads appeared above the gates. Some of the fathiers’ hides were crisscrossed with pale scars. 

Moving slowly so as not to startle it, she peeked over the first fathier’s gate, the animal snuffling at her and murmuring something. The beast itself didn’t smell bad, its odor reminded Rose of grass and sweat, but faintly spicy somehow. Its stall was barely larger than it was, it not having enough room to lie down or turn around. 

A small boy sat up behind the fathier, scooting away to where his rough cot met the wall. He stared at her, frightened, and fumbled for a red button on the wall. 

“No no no!” Finn yelps. 

“We’re with the Resistance.” Rose said at the same time. 

The stableboy looked at her from his frayed cap, Rose removing her ring and activated the hidden catch on its side, revealing the insignia of the old Rebel Alliance. The fathier nickered plaintively while Rose held her breath as the boy studied the ring, then a smile crept across his lips. 

When the police burst into the stable, blasters drawn, two things happened almost at once. First a massive door slide upwards, opposite the row of fathier stalls. Then every gate on the stalls snapped open and the hapless officers were left spinning in the dust and straw as twenty fathiers lept free of the confines of their pens, jostling ti be first through the door leading to the empty racetrack beyond. The stableboy grins, creeping away from the control panel he’d activated and stared down excitedly at the ring with the Alliance crest. 

Rose clung to the lead fathier, the herd’s matriarch the boy has explained in halting Basic, as her first steps exploded into a full gallop. In her ear, Finn let out an astonished yelp as the world began pitching violently up and down around them. Despite their nerves, the matriarch had accepted both Rose’s presence and the unaccustomed additional weight of Finn. Her sides quivered between Rose’s knees and her ears twitched, and somehow Rose knew she wanted to run. 

The fathier’s head slammed up and down as she ran, her wars pushed back behind her by the wind. Rose could feel the blood pumping beneath her arms where they were pressed against the beast’s graceful neck. 

“Stop enjoying this!” Finn yelps in Rose’s ear. 

Police speeders rose into view above the track and Rose could see their weapons rotate, trying to get a fix on the matriarch and the herd sprinting behind her. But then the fathier matriarch snorted and lowered her head, as if she had a plan. She crossed the infield, churning up grass, and smashed through the window behind one of the casino’s bars. Glasses and chairs flew, and Rose could hear people screaming. Finn’s face was between Rose’s shoulder blades. 

Gamblers were diving over tables and piling up in panicked heaps, yelling in terror. Server droids stood stock still, pivoting their trays rapidly this way and that to avoid the herd. Bouncers were screaming and trying to stay upright amid the tide of fleeting guests. Chance cubes and cards and coins and purses and monocles and drinks and utensils and coasters wheeled in midair. 

The fathiers stormed into the lobby. A valet stood, staring and paralyzed, in front of the matriarch and she shouldered him into a pond filled with ornamental fish—carnivorous ornamental fish, to judge from the sudden frenzy in the water. The automatic doors ahead of them obediently opened and the matriarch leapt into the air, mashing the outline of her hooves into the hood of a fancy speeder, then barreling up the boulevard. Rose was laughing out loud now, hearing police sirens, wails of the terrified onlookers, crash of windows shattering, and the hollow clomp of fathier hooves denting speeders. 

The matriarch rocketed into a narrow alley. Strings of decorative lights stretched and snapped, and Rose cringed at the stone walls blurring by on either side of her, convinced that her knees would be smashed any second. 

Ahead of them, the alley terminated in a dead end. 

The matriarch sprang into the air, the wall of Old City passing just below her belly, and landed in loose gravel and sand. The rest of the herd came down behind her, grunting and snorting, chasing her across the beach. 

Moonlight glimmered on the surface of the sea and Rose and Finn could see the pale shape of the shuttle, still sitting where Finn had plowed it into the beach. It wasn’t far away, they might even make it. Then it exploded, ripped apart by a fusillade of full intensity laserfire from the police speeders. 

“Aw, come on!” Finn grumbled. 

Blasterfire whined around them and blue rings struck the edges of the herd, they emerged in a broad meadow, green oasis in the middle of the Cantonican desert. The tall grass crackled and shooshed as the matriarch pounded through it, up to her flanks in greenery. 

“I think we lost them!” Finn stares back, not seeing the police on them anymore as they stayed in the distance. “Now we get down to the beach and circle back around—”

“Cliff!” 

The matriarch skidded to a halt, dipping up skeins of grass and dirt. Rose and Finn were flung over her, tumbling and landing on their stomachs just short of the cliff’s edge. They both stand, panting and staring down the fatal drop. 

“We’re trapped.” 

The matriarch stood in the grass, sides heaving. Behind her, the police speeders were hurtling toward them, spotlights searching the meadow. 

“It was worth it though. To tear up that town.” Finn remarks, waiting for the speeders with his shoulders slumped. “Make ‘em hurt.” 

Rose nods, stepping up to the fathier and removes the saddle, giving her a thank you and told her to join the rest of the herd and reaches into her jumpsuit to touch her medallion. “Now it’s worth it.” 

From behind, the whining hum of well tuned ion engines sounded and they turned, seeing a luxury star yacht rising from the cleft in the bluffs, hovering in front of them. A hatch opened from beneath, and an orange and white astromech whistled at them. 

“BB-8! Wait, are you flying that thing?” Finn shouts in disbelief. 

The answering beeps were cheerful and then, behind BB-8, the man stepped into view. 

“Ah. N-N-Need a lift?” 

They muster up their thoughts, ultimately giving the man the job and he picked them up before flying out in fashionable speed. 

Luke Skywalker walked across the meadow beneath the stars. The grass had been soaked by the recent downpour, and his Jedi ceremonial robes were getting wet, soon they’d be filthy with mud. Once again, he had witnessed his niece, Bre, leave his training and go off after her brother. He had waited until she, Rey, Chewie, and R2 left to do something that he should have done long ago. 

He activated the torch in his hand, igniting a hissing flame that guttered in the night. Ahead of him loomed the ancient uneti tree that held the primordial Jedi texts. He donned the robes and took up the torch before, only to falter and lose his resolve. Luke wasn’t sure why, exactly. He supposed it was because he had spent so many years crossing the galax with R2-D2 as his companion, searching obsessively for ancient lore and a current purpose, at the cost of everything else. In fact, Elektra and Rey had arrived on the island after a failed attempt had left him brooding in the meadow, trying to summon the will to try again. 

But the girls were gone. And this time, Luke vowed, he could not falter. 

As he lifted his eyes to the tree, Luke sensed something behind him, He turned and beheld a shimmering presence from another time, the era he was about to declare extinct. 

“Master Yoda.” Luke says, feeling an instinctive surge of joy at the sight of him. 

It had been many years since he saw a manifestation of the great Jedi teacher, and Yoda appeared almost corporeal, much the same as Luke remembered him his fractious training on Dagobah, which he had cut short to confront Darth Vader. _Like what Bre is doing now,_ he thought to himself.

The little Jedi Master was wizened and stooped, his green scalp wreathed by a frizzy halo of delicate white hair, but now as then his eyes were penetrating, seeming to look through Luke and into his innermost thoughts. 

“Young Skywalker.” Yoda says. 

But Luke realized his old teacher could only have appeared for one reason, and his happiness slipped away. 

“I’m ending all of this,” Luke warned the vision. “The tree, the text, the Jedi. I’m going to burn it down.” 

Yoda just looked amused. 

Luke advanced on the remnant of the ancient tree, the torch blazing in his hand. He stopped less than an arm’s length away from the pale, twisted bark. As soon as he stretched out his arm, the wood would begin to burn and minutes after that the founding texts of the Jedi Order would be drifting ash. 

But as had happened so many times before, Luke found he couldn’t bring himself to lift his hand. 

Yoda looked to the sky, raising a gnarled finger. A bolt of lightning lanced out of the night, momentarily painting the island in black and white and leaving Luke blinking frantically. When he cashed away the spots on his vision the tree was ablaze. 

Behind him, he could hear Yoda guffawing. “Oh, Skywalker. Missed you, I have.” 

Luke steeled himself to rush into the tree and grab the books from their nook, but it was impossible. The tree had become an inferno, blasting him backwards from an explosion and he grunts, sitting up to see the fiery structure. Yoda’s shimmering form appears in front of him, eyeing the tree as well, on top of a tiny island on a forgotten planet in a nameless sector of the galaxy. 

“So it is time for the Jedi Order to end.”

“Time it is.” Yoda faces Luke. “Decide we do not, where our place in this story begins or ends. But time it is for you to look past a pile of old books, hmm?” 

Despite what he had come to do, despite all he had brooded upon, Luke found himself offended. “The sacred Jedi texts.” 

“Oh. Read them, have you?”

“Well, I . . .”

“Page turners, they were not. Yes, yes, yes. Wisdom they held, but that library contained nothing that Bre does not already possess.” 

Yoda shook his head, and Luke felt very much like the Padawan he had been, so many years ago in the bogs of Dagobah. His Master was disappointed, and he was embarrassed. 

“Skywalker, still looking to the horizon. Never here, now, now?” He taps the ground with his cane. “The need in front of your nose.” He then taps Luke’s nose with it. 

“I was weak. Unwise.” 

“Lost Ben Solo, you did.” Yoda tells him, gently but firmly. “Lose Bre, we must not.”

“I can’t be what she needed me to be.” 

“Heeded my words not, did you? Pass on what you have learned. Strength, mastery. But weakness, folly, failure also. Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is.” 

Luke peers down, sadly and into the fire, its filaments reaching for the distant stars while his Master sits next to him. 

“Luke, we are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters.” 

Aboard the Millennium Falcon, Elektra finished closing a storage compartment beneath the relief pilot’s bunk in the man hold and took a deep breath. None of her lengthy debates with herself during the journey from Ahch-To had led her to any other conclusion. The Force had shown her what to do; now it was up to her to actually do it. 

She got changed into a new pair of clothes, dawning her old black long sleeve, a pair of dark grey pants that matched Rey’s, her boots, and grabbed her small pendant of the First Order’s insignia that Kylo gave her when they first joined. It was a sixteen-rayed symbol inscribed within a hexagon, painted silver to match her ‘Commander Ren Outfit’ as she called it. Softly, she dawns it in between her eyebrows, wearing it with shaky confidence. Trying to maintain the illusion that she hadn’t completely changed sides even though everyone would know the lie. 

Rey steps up next to her. “I’m coming with you.” 

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” 

“You’re not going in alone. We’re in this together, you once said that. I won’t let you be alone.” 

Elektra felt herself smile but it quickly turned into a frown as she thought about Snoke and what her brother would think. She went to speak but Rey had already known what she was going to say, she sensed it from the Force. 

“If anything, you can hold me as your prisoner. Say that you’ve played the game and changed your mind, that I’m your offer to the First Order. They won’t harm you if you do.” 

“But they’ll harm you.” 

This time, it was Rey who broke into a smile. “I can handle myself.” 

“Never said you couldn’t.” 

Chewbacca was waiting for them in the freighter’s cramped escape pod bay, crouched by one of the single person pods. R2-D2 stood nearby, lights blinking on his dome. He first helped Elektra in and then Rey, his hands surprisingly gentle. 

“As soon as we launch, you jump back out of range and stay there until you get my signal.” Elektra informs him. 

The Wookie rumbled, but she wasn’t interested in being talked out of it. 

“If you see Finn before I do, tell him . . .” Elektra drifts, not exactly sure what to say. 

Chewie yowled. 

Elektra then nods. “Yeah. Perfect. Tell him that.” 

She settled back down in the pod, her arm shushed against Rey’s and they both stared at each other with worry and fear, but they still felt safe with each other’s company as Chewie sealed them in.


	10. Fire At Will

Poe left the control room of the Raddus as C’ai’s transport returned, figuring the least he could do was welcome the Ninkas to the ship. But his words sounded unconvincing in his own ears as he greeted the techs and soldiers, and few of them even looked up. They simply trudged across the hangar with their shoulders slumped and faces drawn. They looked beaten. 

Poe stalked angrily through the corridors of the Raddus, passing nervous looking soldiers and crewers. The heavy cruiser was dim, lit in many places only by emergency lighting. That was to conserve fuel, a measure her might have agreed with, if only he knew that that fuel was being conserved for. 

He reached the temporary bridge and found Commander D’Acy waiting for him, outside the doors. “The admiral’s banned you from the bridge. Let’s not have a scene.” 

“Let’s,” Poe remarks, shouldering D’Acy aside and storming onto the bridge. D’Acy hurried to catch up with him, but he’d target locked Holdo and arrowed straight for her. None of the officers in his path dared to stop him. “Holdo!”

Holdo just regarded him evenly. “Flyboy.”

“Cut it, lady.” Poe spat. “We’ve had a fleet, now we’re down to one ship, running on fumes and you’ve told us nothing!” He stood, getting nose to nose with her. “Tell us that we have a plan! That there’s hope!”

“When I served under Leia, she would say hope is like the sun. If you only believe in it when you can see it—”

“—you’ll never make it through the night.” Poe finished. 

They looked at each other in silence, united if only for that moment by their shared regard for the woman they’d lost. 

Poe then spotted one of the officers’ monitors that had a readout of a transport on it, like the one C’ai had just piloted back from the Ninka. Poe was trying to process what he was seeing and not wanting to believe it. 

“You’re fueling up the transports?” He then walks towards the monitor, seeing that that was exactly what was happening. “You are. All of them?” His anger began boiling. “We’re abandoning ship? Is that . . . That’s what you got? That’s what you brought us to? Coward!” Poe then kicked over a chair in his rage, flipping a table. “Those transports are unshielded, unarmed. We abandon this cruiser, we’re done. We don’t stand a chance. No, you’re not just a coward. You are a traitor!” 

Holdo just held his stare. “Get this man off my bridge.” She ordered, and the soldiers stepped forward to obey her order. 

In the Libertine, Rose was controlling it as it flew in hyperspace with Finn at her side and the man, who was named DJ, who sat behind her in another chair. The yacht was nearly sixty meters from the repulsorlift banes jutting from its prow to the rakish fin at the stern, sheathed in hull plating that had been milled, polished, and buffed to a glossy white sheen. There was an elegant lounge with the latest model of pedestal holoprojector in the center of the flight deck; trim, tastefully appointed sabins belowdecks; and an honest to goodness staircase leading up to the cockpit. 

“Four parsecs to go.” Finn tells her. This thing really cooks.” 

“I just hope we’re there in time.” Rose then glances over her shoulder at DJ. “You can actually do this, right?”

“Yeah, about that . . .” He starts and they both turn to him. “Guys, I can do it. But there exists a pre-‘do it’ conversation about price.” 

Rose nods. “Once we’re done, the Resistance will give you whatever you want.” 

“What do you got deposit wise?” He asks appraisingly, taking a sip from his drink. 

Finn studies him. “Are you kidding me? Look at us.” 

DJ did and Rose noticed that her medallion had drawn his attention. “Is that Haysian smelt? That’s something.” Rose put her hand over her medal, instinctively hiding it from his covetous gaze. 

“No.” Finn defended. “We gave you our word. You’re gonna get paid. That should be enough.” 

“Guys, I wanna keep helping. But no something, n-n-no doing.” 

“Okay, listen here. You got—”

Eyes cold, Rose tugged her medallion free and tossed it to DJ. “Do it.” She said, turning back around in her chair. 

“Now, I can help.” Dj said, a feral gleam in his eyes as his hand closed around the medallion. 

Just then, a message came in over the radio from Poe. Rose had gotten through to the fleet, and now, they were being told the latest news of what had happened while they were away. 

“Finn, Holdo’s loading the crew in the shuttle. She’s going to abandon ship. Where are you?” 

“Poe, we’re on our way back to the fleet. We’re so close.”

“Did you find the Master Codebreaker?” 

“Well, we found a codebreaker.” Finn tells him and on the Raddus, Poe exhaled, resting his forehead on the walkie. “We can shut the tracker down. Just buy us a little more time.” 

He lifts his head, thinking it through and nods, dispatching back to Finn. “Alright. Hurry.”

Three TIE fighters flew in close formation, their pilots’ gloved fingers hovering near the fire button on their control yokes as a long ship had come out of hyperspace between the two fleets and jumped almost immediately, ejecting something that began flying toward the First Order task force. The sensor profile indicated it was too small to even be a starfighter, so what was it?

To the pilots’ bafflement, it turned out to be an escape pod—one with two lifeforms. As they escorted it toward the hangar, all three pilots pondered a variation of the same thought: what lunatic would head into a battle before abandoning ship?

Inside, Elektra felt the pod land on the ground and she held the lightsaber tightly in her right hand while she clung to Rey’s with her left. She was breathing heavily and so was Rey, they were both nervous but trying to claim a calm demeanor in order for their plan to work out. 

Kylo Ren entered the hangar, seeing the pod and approached it, already knowing who was in it before it opened with a hiss of vapor. His sister’s presence had been a steady pulse from the Force the moment their father’s junk heap freighter once again somehow heaved itself out of hyperspace without disintegrating. Once the vapor vanished, he saw his little sister, he also saw the scavenger, Rey, with her; both of the girls crammed into the pod’s tight confines. He steps off to the side, Stormtroopers standing behind him ready with restraints. 

Rey was the first one that was taken out, placed in handcuffs then Elektra stood, eyeing her brother who then noticed their grandfather’s lightsaber.

“I’ll take that.” Kylo begins. “It belongs to me.” 

Elektra was tempted to tell him to take it from her, to remind him that Anakin’s lightsaber chose her and that she’d driven him to his knees at Starkiller Base and disarmed him. That he would bear the mark of that duel forever. But that wasn’t why she had come, and they both knew it. Still, she held the lightsaber for a moment, to remind Kylo that she was the one who had set this chain of events in motion.

“Then why did it call out to me, and not you?” 

The corner of Kylo’s mouth twitched in the beginning of a smile, and he inclined his head at the soldiers filling the hangar. “You’re in no position to dictate.” 

Elektra held the hilt out to him and Kylo frowned, then reached out, his scarred face momentarily uncertain. The slightest tremor disturbed his black gloved fingers as he reached out for the weapon sitting motionless in Elektra’s hand. He snatched it away, gesturing curtly for a First Order officer to approach with binders. 

“This is really necessary?” 

“It is.” Kylo said, hustling her and Rey into the depths of the massive flagship. “We have an appointment.” 

Elektra and Kylo naturally had long strides to the point that Rey had to keep up with them both, not wanting to be seen scurrying. Behind them, accompanied Stormtroopers’ armor rattled. Rey could feel their anxiety about a situation between the two Ren twins, they never had training regiments on it. Elektra never ruled alongside her brother, but she was an important figure within the First Order considering that her brother was the most destructive and powerful Force user. If anyone dared to harm her, they would be punished. If anyone dared to challenge her, Kylo was ready to challenge them himself. But now that has changed. Elektra was among the Resistance, and they now knew that she, too, is a Force user. If Kylo Ren already had his title, they could only imagine what Elektra’s was. 

Rey didn’t blame them. Kylo’s turmoil all but filled the Force around them, roiling and churning it while Elektra’s serenity was warm, fierce, and charming in the Force. Both of them in the same room, in the same place, felt like being on fire and freezing all at once. 

Kylo stopped at a lone turbolift ringed by Stormtroopers and dismissed the guards. The doors shut and left Elektra and Rey alone with him. He was still contemplating the lightsaber in his hands. 

Elektra figured that it was good of a time to try and bring her brother home. “You don’t have to do this.” 

“I do.” 

I feel the conflict in you growing since you killed Dad.” She began, speaking softly while she stared forwards. “It’s tearing you apart.” 

“Is that why you came? To tell me about my conflict?” 

Elektra knew that was coming, it was his usual tactic of deflection and derision. As if he were the master and she was his student, to be kept at bay and off balance by questions. But things had changed. She wasn’t the small child that he grew up with who was afraid of the story of Jabba the Hutt. Not anymore. 

“No,” she turns, staring up at her brother who was taller by six inches. “ _Ben_.”

He turned at the sound of the name he’d been born with, the one he’d abandoned. He looked lost. Elektra had never called him that, only ever Kylo because as children, they gave each other codes name as a part of their bond. She gave him Kylo and he gave her Elektra, they both abandoned their names after the Jedi school, using their old codenames. Hearing Elektra call him Ben, it was something so personal—so intimate. 

“When we touched hands, I saw your future. You won’t bow before Snoke. And you will turn. We’ll do it together, I saw it.”

She watched the emotions chase themselves across his face, echoed by jitters and spikes in the Force. Anger. Confusion. Pain. Loneliness. Longing. Sorrow. Then, he lifts his eyes to hers.

“I saw something, too.” He whispers. “Because of what I saw, I know when the moment comes, you’ll be the one to turn. You’ll stand with me.” 

Elektra knew that it wasn’t a lie, because he never lied to her, there was never any reason to and that was a terrifying thing. Her brother’s churning emotions weren’t just about himself, they were also about her. 

The turbolift doors opened with a hiss and Elektra spun on her heel, her and Rey staring out to see the heart of the Supremacy; the red room that held Supreme Leader Snoke in his throne and his faceless, crimson armored guards stood on either side of the throne, bladed weapons ready. Snoke himself was almost slouching, indolent in his golden robes, secure in the safety of his sanctum. 

His eyes were piercing and hungry. Elektra tried to avoid them while Kylo led her and Rey into the room but his gaze was like a lodestone, dragging her attention involuntarily to him. Their pull was akin to what she’s felt near the pit on Ahch-To; whispering of secrets that had been reserved for her, that belonged to her. Ancient, hidden knowledge that would destroy the weak but elevate the strong. The _worthy._

Snoke grins, fixing his dreadful, bottomless eyes on Kylo instead. “Well done, my good and faithful apprentice.” His voice was deep and slow. “My faith in you is restored.” 

Kylo kneels, lowering his head while Rey and Elektra take four steps before him, standing still and both eyeing Snoke. 

“Elektra, welcome back home.” His attention turns to Rey. “And young Rey, welcome.”

The Raddus’s hangar was filled with transports, Poe counted thirty of them, enough to evacuate every member of the Resistance who’d survived the evacuation of D’Qar. Crewers scurried around them, preparing them for flight and sneaking looks at the gathering to the side of the hangar, where a small group of pilots led by Poe Damerson had approached Vice Admiral Holdo and her officers with an urgent message. 

“So a Stormtrooper and a who-now are doing what?” Holdo exclaimed. 

“Trying to save us. This is our best hope of escape. You have to give Finn and Rose all the time you can.” 

“You have bet the survival of the Resistance on bad odds and put us all at risk,” Holdo fumed. “There’s no time now.” She turned to her officers. “We need to get clear of this cruiser. Load the transports.” 

“I was afraid you’d say that.” Poe said, and drew his blaster. The other pilots followed, unholstering their own weapons. “Admiral Holdo, I’m relieving you of your duty for the survival of this ship, its crew, and the Resistance.” 

The officers behind Holdo looked shocked and angry, but the admiral simply gave Poe one of her appraising glances. Poe tensed, knowing this could go either way. Then Holdo raised her hands. After a moment, her officers did the same. 

“I hope you understand what you’re doing.” 

In different circumstances he might have explained that he did understand, trying one last time, to make her see how she had lost sight of Leia’s vision and how she might restore it. But he had to seize the little time that remained to them, to seize it and use it to improve the odds for Rose and Finn as best as he could.

“I’m going to the bridge.” Poe told C’ai. “If they move, stun ‘em.” 

The laundry room was deep in the Supremacy's lower levels, near the huge warhsip’s stern. DJ, Rose, Finn, and BB-8 went there first to get dressed up in First Order uniforms. 

There were no mirrors, but Finn had seen enough First Order uniforms to know his looked right with the tunic straight, pants flaring above the high boots, and visor of his cap neither too high nor too low. The only uniform small enough to fit Rose had been a major’s blue-green outfit, but it looked passable. 

As for DJ . . . Well, DJ’s uniform was fine, but the man himself looked like he’d just crawled back into his quarters after three days’ shore leave on Nar Shaddaa. 

Finn scowled, but it couldn’t be helped. Fortunately, hierarchy outweighed everything else in the First Order. 

“Will this really work?” Rose asked, and it was obvious she didn’t think it would. 

“Of course it will.” Finn said with a jauntiness he knew wouldn’t fool her. “Just look out for the guys in white.” 

“Stormtroopers?” 

“No. White tunics. Those guys are First Order Security Bureau. Loyalty officers. It’s their job to be suspicious. Everyone else will be looking at your rank insignia, not your face.”

During the first few minutes of their journey towards the distant tracking control room, they encountered no one. Just a lone mouse droid that regarded BB-8 curiously before letting out a puzzled but cheerful chirp. 

Finn eyed the astromech droid. “We should have gotten you a uniform, too. Hmm.” He paused at a technician’s station by the turbolift and scooped up a rectangular black trash can and placed it over him. 

Finn lead the three, knowing his way around from having grown up in this environment, looking like a model officer as he strided through the commons like he owned it. He practically radiated aloof confidence. 

Six Stormtroopers stood at the turbolift bank, their postures indicating they were waiting and not on guard duty. Finn reached around one of them and jabbed at the lift controls. 

When the lift came, Rose hurried inside with DJ on her heels, Finn and BB-8 following, and stabbed at the controls, closing the doors and traveling upwards to where they needed to be. 

Finn rounded the corner, he was grimly certain that he had made a mistake somewhere, leading them in some random direction through the Supremacy’s guts instead of to the tracking control station. But no, ahead of them the corridor ended at a formidable looking door. Beyond it, through combatted viewports, he saw rows of computer banks and imposing circuit breakers rated for the power needs of an A class process. 

“This is it.” He says, debating whether or not to tease Rose about all the worrying she’d done. “The tracker’s right behind this door.” 

DJ studied the door control, pushing a button to release a hatch and pulled out Rose’s medallion from his coat, placing it into the innards of the panel which zaps and releases the bottom portion of the panel that he needed. 

“Haysian smelt,” he held the medallion out to her. “Best conductor.” 

Rose tried to hide her astonishment, taking back her medallion and waved her off to keep a lookout like how Finn was. 

“And you’re welcome.” He adds before getting to work. 

Rose steps up behind Finn. “Good time to figure out how we get back to the fleet?” 

“I know where the nearest escape pods are.” 

“Course you do.” 

“BB-8, tell me something good.” Poe had dispatched to BB-8, his voice echoing out from under the trash bin that the droid was under. 

BB-8 chirps, extending a mechanical arm from beneath the bin, flipping the comlink in Finn’s direction. He catches it, answering back. “Poe, we’re almost there. Have the cruiser prepped for lightspeed.” 

Poe strolled down the halls of the Raddus with a few members following after. “Yeah, I’m on it, pal. You just hurry.”

He entered the bridge and began putting coordinates into the navicomputer. “Clear the bridge, escort the officers down to the hangar.” 

C-3PO began shuffling toward him. “Captain Dameron, Admiral Holdo was looking for you.” 

“Yeah, we spoke.” 

“Sir, I’m almost afraid to ask.”

“Good instinct. Go with that.” 

Then motion from the hangar caught his eye on the monitor. Smoky vapor was spilling out of a fuel hose, pierced by flashing rings of stun beams. Holdo had made her move and Poe could see her in the middle of the fight, directing her loyalists. 

“Seal that door!” He shouted to Connix by the entrance to the bridge. 

She did do, overriding the controls to lock out anyone trying to enter from the other side. Now all Poe could do was wait. 

C-3PO began shuffling toward the door. Poe watched the protocol droid in disbelief. “Threepio, stay away from that door.”

“It would be quite against my programming to be party to a mutiny.” He huffed. “It is not the correct protocol!” 

Sparks flew from the juncture of the bridge doors as someone began cutting through from the other side. C-3PO executed a hasty about-face and headed in the other direction as quickly as his servomotors allowed. 

Poe exchanged a glance to the other pilots, then looked worriedly at the sparking door. “Finn? We’re ready to make the jump!” 

Once the call went through, Finn saw Stormtroopers approaching round the corner and rushed to DJ. “Now or ever.” 

Dj steps back in sleepy satisfaction. “Now.” 

The door opened and Finn and Rose rushed in, with DJ and BB-8 trailing behind. Rose eyes the circuit breakers, tracing the pathway of power conduits. 

Something hissed on either side of them. Two doors opened and the BB unit from the commons rolled inside, its electronic eye fixed on balefully on them. A dozen Stormtroopers rushed in, blasters drawn. Behind them came security officers and Finn looked glumly at the Troopers as they clattered into the control room. There were far too many of them even to think of starting a firefight. 

Then a new sound reached his ears, a dreadfully familiar one. The slow, measured tread of armored feet. 

Captain Phasma walked into the control room, rifle cradled in her mirror bright gauntlets. 

“FN-2187.” She purred. “So good to have you back.” 

Poe was still trying to process that he’d just heard his friends being captured when sparks began to fly from the doors to the Raddus’s temporary bridge. He fumbled for his sidearm as the doors groaned open, then waited for the smoke to clear, keeping his blaster leveled at the bridge entrance. 

Leia Organa walked through the smoke in her hospital gown, her steps a bit shaky, her face grave. 

Relief flooded through Poe. He lowered his blaster, happy he was to see her. “Leia.” 

She then raised her blaster and stunned him, knocking him out cold while the others came in and got him on a gurney. 

The transports began taking off, them cloaking themselves to hide from the First Order as they traveled to their new destination. Holdo checked that Poe was breathing before he was loaded up, signaling the two soldiers to continue on with carrying him aboard one of the transports. She turned to Leia. 

“That one’s a troublemaker. I like him.” 

“Me too.” Leia said with a smile. “Now board your transport.” 

Holdo raised an eyebrow at her old friend. “For the transports to escape, someone has to stay behind and pilot the cruiser.” 

Leia fixed her with a look Holdo knew all too well. She’d seen it on Alderaan, during the pathfinding expeditions of their youth, in the Apprentice Legislature on Coruscant, and in various impressive looking legislative chambers as the New Republic Senate moved from world to world. 

“Too many losses,” she said quietly. “I can’t do it anymore.”

“Sure you can.” Holdo replied, and Leia looked up in surprise. “You taught me how.” 

Leia almost smiled. “May the Force—” She began, only to hear her friend was saying the same words. 

They stopped, deferring to each other. 

“You take it.” Leia told her. “I’ve said it enough.” 

“May the Force be with you always.” Holdo said with a smile. 

Interpreting visions of the future was a dangerous game. Whether Jedi, Sith, or some other sect less celebrated by history, all those who used the Force to explore possible timelines kept the uppermost in their minds. Those who didn’t died regretting that they hadn’t. 

Snoke had learned that lesson many years ago, when he was young and the galaxy was very different. These days, what struck him was how much visions of the future left out. For example, who would have guessed that Rey would be so slim and fragile looking? How could Elektra best her brother in a lightsaber duel without never having fought with one before? 

But Snoke knew appearances were often deceiving, sometimes fatally so. Underestimating Rey had led Kylo to not being able to receive the map from her brain and underestimating Elektra nearly cost Kylo his life. Snoke knew better. For he had his own legions of uncounted dead, their ranks filled by those who had underestimated him. 

But there was only one who was left, still alive; still an obstacle that stood in the way. Luke Skywalker. Who had been wise enough not to rebuild the Jedi Order, dismissing it as the sclerotic, self perpetuating debating society it had become in its death throes. Instead, the last Jedi had sought to understand the origins of the faith, and the larger truths behind it.

Like his father, Skywalker had been a favored instrument of the will of the Cosmic Force. That made it essential to watch him, And once Skywalker endangered Snoke’s design, it had become essential to act. 

And so Snoke had drawn upon his vast store of knowledge, parceling it out to confuse Skywalker’s path, ensnare his family, and harness Ben Solo’s powers to ensure both Skywalker’s destruction and Snoke’s triumph.

Now the endgame he had foreseen was at hand, the only thing that was different was Elektra. 

Snoke waved and the girls’ blinders parted and clattered to the floor, a trivial demonstration of the Force.

“Come closer, Rey.” 

She refused him and Snoke reached out with the Force, whose power had waxed even as his body had withered. Rey wasn’t moving and it wasn’t her, it had been Elektra keeping her in place, being very strong which made him smile with delight. She would have made a fitting instrument for Snoke if he’d still need such crude tools. 

“So much strength, Elektra.” Snoke says, savoring the currents of power in the room and the chaos of their collisions. “Darkness rises, and light to meet it. I warned my young apprentice that as he grew stronger, his equal in the light would rise.”

Another seemingly offhand gesture and Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber ripped itself free of Kylo’s grasp, flying in between Rey and Elektra’s heads to smack into Snoke’s hand. He turned the weapon gently, admiring both the skill of its construction and the power coiled within it. To Snoke’s eyes, the weapon’s very form revealed the Jedi lineage behind its creations, a string of once mighty names that no longer had any meaning. 

“Skywalker, or even Rey, I assumed. Wrongly.” He set the lightsaber down on the throne’s armrest and pinned Elektra with his gaze. 

This time, he used the Force on Elektra instead of Rey and she fought against him but he managed to yank her centimeter by slow, unwilling centimeter toward him across the polished floor. 

Rey went to follow after but Snoke held her in place, still focusing on bringing Elektra closer to him who tried to resist; commanding her feet to remain planted on the floor but it was hopeless. She was pulled closer and closer to the Supreme Leader. 

“You undervalue my brother,” she warned the gaunt, robed figure, her voice strained by trying to keep her distance. “It’ll be your downfall.” 

Snoke’s eyes glittered with feral amusement. Few things were more entertaining than an opponent who mistook a little bit of knowledge for the entire picture. He studies Elektra, still futilely struggling against will, and decided he had time to teach her this final lesson. 

“Oh?” He questions, radiating mock concern. “Have you seen something? A weakness in my apprentice? Is that why you came?” 

Kylo Ren had remained kneeling in the throne room as Snoke spoke with Elekta, his face an impassive mask. 

Snoke laughed, shaking his head. “Foolish girl. I bridged your minds. I stoked Ren’s conflicted soul. I knew he was not strong enough to hide it from you, his precious sister. And you were not wise enough to resist the bait.”

The dawning horror on her face, and her attempt to hide it made Snoke excited. He was finally able to see and to feel the Force within her. 

“You’ve been hiding all this time, how did you do it?” 

Elektra doesn’t answer and she didn’t need to because he felt it, realized it and the answer was brought forwards in her mind. 

“Massassi blood. What a bright child. Hiding yourself from those all around you, so they couldn’t get what they needed from you. But now, you aren’t.” 

Elektra’s concentration broke and Snoke drew her closer to his throne, her face paralyzed just centimeters from his own. Kylo looked up in surprise, his eyes locked on his master and gave him a pleading look. Snoke considered him, seeing his apprentice’s enormous potential when he was still a child, the latent power of the Skywalker bloodline was impossible to miss. And he had also seen how to exploit the boy’s feelings of inadequacy and abandonment, and his mother’s guilt and desperation to contain the darkness within her child. 

And indeed, Ben Solo had performed the role Snoke had envisioned for him perfectly. The combination of his potential and the danger he posed had lured Skywalker into seeking to rebuild the Jedi. He had then destroyed all Skywalker had built and sent the failed Jedi Master into exile, removing him from the board just as the game entered a critical phase. 

But what role the boy would play in the future was less clear. He called himself Kylo Ren, but as with so much else about him, that was more wish fulfillment than reality. He had never escaped being Ben Solo, or learned to resist the pull of the weak and pathetic light, or had the strength to excise the sentimental streak that had destroyed his legendary grandfather. And there was his most glaring failure of all: his inability or unwillingness to use his power to redirect the course of his own destiny. 

Snoke had once seen Kylo as the perfect student, a creation of both dark and light, with the strength of both aspects of the Force. But perhaps he had been wrong about that. Perhaps Kylo was an unstable combination of those aspects’ weaknesses, a flawed vessel that could never be filled. 

Snoke turned his attention back to Elektra, still gamely struggling to fight something she had no hope of contending with, let alone defeating. And that’s where Snoke had been mistaken. Elektra was the reason why Kylo Ren was still Ben Solo, the reason why he still felt the tug of the light. It had been her all along and she was hidden underneath his nose because of the painted black mask that she wore all her life until this very moment. 

“You’ll give me Skywalker.” He told her as she began breathing heavily, cupping her cheek. “Then I will kill you with the cruelest stroke.” 

“No.” She managed to utter. 

“Yes.” Snoke replies, exultant. He raised his hand and hurled her across the room with the Force, then held her in the air as he smashed aside her resistance and began rifling through her thoughts, her memories, making them his to do with as he would. 

Elektra was rotated back and the skin at her temples pulsed in waves, a physical manifestation of the violent intrusion into her mind. 

“Give me _everything_.” Snoke commanded. 

The very air between them bent and wavered as Snoke harnessed the Force and made it his weapon. Elektra thrashed in pain, screaming and seeking an escape that didn’t exist. 

“Elektra!” Rey shouts to her, watching her friend being tortured mentally and tried to move but couldn’t as her body was rooted to where she stood. She just stared at Kylo, and as much as she didn’t like him, she did like Elektra; she cared about her and it was making her blood bubble that Elektra’s own brother wasn’t doing anything. 

Kylo felt her intense gaze, eyes slowly lingering to her. 

“Why aren’t you doing something?!” She yells.

Kylo could feel Elektra’s pain and panic, a bright roar in the Force that overwhelmed all else, even the dark presence of Snoke. But he did not intervene. Instead, he lowered his head and awaited his master’s command. 

Poe woke up all at once with a jolt as consciousness returned and he sat up panicked as pieces of his memory come back, jangled and misaligned. The first thing he saw was the backs of Resistance uniforms and realized they were soldiers, techs, and pilots, as well as droids. Then, behind them, he saw the viewports of a U-55 loadlifter. And through those windows, deep space and the bulbous shape of the Raddus, rapidly shrinking. 

“No!” Poe gasped, struggling to his feet, and running to the window. 

Someone was calling his name. He knew that voice. It was General Organa who was on the opposite side of the ship. He forced his legs to work, his muscles were still tingling and twitching, numbed by the aftereffects of the stun blast. 

Filling the viewports on this side of the transport was a pale white planet adorned with dark streaks. 

“What is that?” Poe asked. 

“The mineral planet Crait.” D’Acy tells Poe who was nearby, studying the bright globe below them. “An uncharted hideout from the days of Rebellion.”

“That’s a rebel base?” Poe looks up to her. 

“Abandoned but heavily armored. With enough power to get a distress signal to our allies scattered in the Outer Rim.” 

“Holdo knew the First Order was tracking our big ship. They’re not monitoring for little transports.” Leia begins to explain.

Poe now understood, sitting down next to her. “So we could slip down to the surface unnoticed and hide until the First Order passes. That could work.” 

Leia nods, her eyes gentle. “She was more interested in protecting the light than she was seeming like a hero.” She then reaches her fingers around the cuff of his jacket and Poe looks down to see her taking the beacon from around his wrist and restoring it to its place around her own.

Captain Phasma marched through the corridor of the Supremacy at the head of a cordon of Stromtroopers who surrounded Finn and Rose. DJ skulked alongside the column, obviously ill at ease. The journey ended in a huge hangar prepared for war. Dozens of TIE fighters were fueled and ready, tethered to their support lines. Troop transports waited to receive soldiers. Scout walkers stood in front of the heavier, four-legged war machines, which were attacked to the drop ships that would bring them planetside. And a full Stormtrooper regiment stood in parade formation. At the head of the troops was Armitage Hux. 

Phasma led the prisoners right up to the pale, red haired general, who was visibly seething as they were forced down onto their knees before him. 

Rose shot a look at Finn, who forced himself to remain expressionless. Phasma was brutal and pitiless, the divine queen of a pre-industrial barbarian world before the First Order found her but she was also disciplined and pragmatic. 

Hux, on the other hand, was insane, irrational and perpetually enraged. He eyed Finn, a muscle jumping in his sallow cheek, backhanding the former First Order Stormtrooper. 

Finn braced himself for a further assault but Hax appeared content with the gesture or perhaps, the slap had hurt his hand worse than he’d expected. 

“Well done, Phasma.” 

She turned, facing DJ. “Your ship and payment, just as we agreed.” 

Rose moved so quickly but too many Stormtroopers between her and the Canto Bight thief stopped her, holding her in her kneeling position as she kept fighting against their hold wildly. 

“You lying snake.”

“We got caught,” DJ begins. “I cut a d-d-deal.”

“Wait,” Finn thought it through. “Cut a deal with what?”

A First Order commander marched up to Hux. “Sir, we checked on the information from the thief. We ran a decloaking scan, and sure enough, thirty Resistance transports have just launched from the cruiser.”

Hux regarded Phasma, impressed and surprised. “He told us the truth. Will wonders never cease?” He then looks to the commander. “Our weapons are ready?” 

“Ready and aimed, sir.” 

Hux was flushed with triumph. “Fire at will.” 

Finn tried to attack the commander who began heading off but he was held down. “Wait. No, no. No, you can’t!”

The transport carrying Poe and Leia shook violently, and the turbolaster fire flashed past the viewports. One of the transports vanished in a ball of fire, instantly vaporized. Leia looked out, horrified then turned her head to look at the surface of Crait below them. It took only seconds for her to perform the calculations. 

They were moving too slowly. 

There were too many transports. 

The First Order knew about their ploy. 

Aboard the Raddus, a stunned Holdo could only watch as another transport exploded. A hologram shimmered to life at her console, getting her direct attention. 

“Admiral, we’re taking fire!” A Resistance pilot reported and she could hear the panic in his voice. “Do we turn about?” 

“No! You’re too far out. Full speed to planetfall! Full spee—”

An instant later the hologram flared out of existence as his ship was hit and exploded. Holdo choked back a dismayed cry, she had to do something. But what?

Elektra could feel Snoke in her head, his consciousness a live, hungry thing, carelessly sifting and sorting through what wasn’t his, what he had no right to. She was unable to push back against him, his mere presence threatened to overwhelm her. 

Random bits of memory came back to her as the Supreme Leader scrutinized them and cast them aside. Her meeting Finn for the first time as a Stormtrooper. Her and Rey talking about the Massassi blood just outside Maz’s castle. Holding Anakin’s lightsaber hilt out in mute appeal. 

She felt his interest quicken at that last moment burned into her mind. That was what he wanted; Skywalker’s island and the planet of which it was a part, and what it was called and how she reached it. 

Elektra tried to blank her mind, to shut him out, to fight him off. None of it worked. Snoke found what he wanted, took it, and discarded her. Her body slamming onto the floor of his throne room, writhing in pain, even more consumed by her hatred for him. 

Snoke laughed, leaning back in his throne which broke his hold on Rey and she ran directly for Elektra, making sure that she was alright which was short lived because Snoke flung her backwards towards the turbolift, opening the doors, and shut her in.

Snoke no longer needed the scavenger, she wasn’t important; all this time he thought she was and like how he even admitted, he believed that Rey was Kylo’s opposite in the light but he realized that it was, indeed, Elektra. Rey was a no one, only a Force user with no extraordinary bloodline so how was she able to deflect his apprentice in her mind? Elektra. 

He saw the memory where Rey and Elektra both touched Anakin’s lightsaber and was taken into a Forceback which granted Rey a connection to Elektra’s mind, to her unlimited power that she had been suppressing since childhood. That’s why she was able to resist Kylo, why she was able to search in his mind and find his fears. It was always Elektra’s strength and power that blanketed Rey, and Snoke now knew. 

Elektra grunts, steadying herself shakily on her elbows and eyed the turbolift where Rey was being held before drifting her eyes towards her brother who still held his stare downwards at the floor. Unlike Rey, she didn’t blame him for not doing anything when she was being tormented. Kylo had been beaten into submission from Snoke for so many years, abused, tortured, and made him believe that he was worth much more than he already was. Snoke had such an immense grasp on him that one step out of line would result in punishment and Elektra would very much rather herself being beaten than her brother. 

“I don’t expect Skywalker to be so wise.” Snoke’s voice oozed with satisfaction which made Elektra turn her head to look at him. “We will give him and the Jedi Order the death he desires. After the rebels are gone, we will go to his planet and obliterate the entire island.” 

Elektra gathered up strength, forcing herself straight up and onto her feet, thrusting out her right hand towards her grandfather and uncle’s lightsaber that was sitting next to Snoke on the arm of his throne. She willed it into her hand and it flew into the air, in perfect arc that would end in her grasp. 

Watching Elektra struggle against him, Snoke smiled. Calling a lightsaber into one’s hand was such a trivial use of the Force; a trick for the greenest apprentice. It’s working almost beneath the dignity of a master of the Force. Nevertheless, he admired the girl’s resolve. She was beaten but persisted. Such a hubris would have to be punished. 

Snoke twists his fingers, altering the weapons’s path so it flew right by her head and circled around the room, smacking her in the back of the head; spinning and landing right back on the armrest. Elektra held her head where she was hit, wincing and scowled at the Supreme Leader. 

“Such spunk.” He said, feeling the hatred swelling in her and savoring it. “Look here now.” He summons the Force to drag her across the room and the red curtains of the throne room parted, revealing a curved bank of viewports. Before one of them was a lens-like oculus. 

Force to stare into it, Elektra saw the Resistance fleet had been reduced to one warship and a collection of small transports. The smaller ships were exploding, erased one after another by the First Order’s guns. It took her a minute to realize what she was seeing and she felt a hard lump in the middle of her throat. 

“The entire Resistance on those transports. Soon they will all be gone. For you, all is lost.” 

Elektra had her teeth bared, her eyes burning like fire and she bawled her hands into tight fists, spinning around with her own strength against Snoke’s. She threw out her left arm, fingers splayed at her brother, the Force in motion. This unexpected, desperate act caught Kylo by surprise. His lightsaber flew off his belt and across the room, the Praetorians tensing at its flight, to land in Elektra’s hand. 

She ignites it, the crimson blade a snarl of energy, the crossguard energy channels sputtering to life a moment later. Her eyes dead set on Snoke as the Praetorians readied their weapons, blades raised, stances in attack mode. Snoke lifts his hand to call them off as he was enjoying the show, chuckling at the sight of Elektra’s face bathed in the red light of the unstable blade.

“Ooh. You still have that fiery spit of hope. You have the spirit of a true Jedi!” He then leans over the one armrest. “And the failed makings of a Sith.” 

_Sith._ That’s what set Elektra off. She ran full force at Snoke, letting out a war cry and raised the lightsaber from behind her back, getting ready to jump and slice the Supreme Leader in two halves. Snoke then used the Force to fling her off the floor, backwards into the air. She hit, landing on her back with a grunt and the lightsaber clashes out of her hand, deactivating and spun across the floor to land directly at Kylo’s feet to a stop. 

“And because of that, you must die.” Snoke said, turning his cobalt-blue eyes to Kylo as he hoists Elektra to her knees, hovering her just inches above the ground with her arms pinned back as she struggled and turned her around to face the boy. 

His apprentice had barely moved since delivering Elektra and Rey, but his emotions had been simmering when he arrived, and began to boil when Snoke revealed that he was the creator of Kylo’s mysterious connection with his sister. He focuses on Snoke, his face unreadable. 

“My worthy apprentice, son of darkness, heir apparent to Lord Vader,” Snoke said, knowing how Kylo yearned for such praise. “Where there was conflict, I now sense resolve. Where there was weakness, strength. Complete your training and fulfill your destiny.” 

Kylo rose, his unlit lightsaber in one hand and the other held carelessly behind his back. Step by step, he advanced on the helpless Elektra. Snoke eyed him, wary of some new retreat into sentiment, into the weakness that held him back for so long. But Kylo’s face was cold, and his eyes were determined. He stopped once his sister was within reach of his blade and she was breathing heavily, still fighting against Snoke’s hold and shifted her eyes to stare up at him. 

“I know what I have to do.” Kylo said, his voice emotionless which made her scared. He told Han the exact same thing before he drove his lightsaber into his chest and Elektra seen it happen; her hearing those exact same words let her know that she was about to fall the same fate. 

“ _Ben._ ” She desperately whispers. 

Snoke laughed. Bridging the twins’ minds had been a gamble, one he had weighed for some time. But it had worked even more than Snoke had hoped. It had fooled the girl into revealing Skywalker, but it had also forced Kylo to confront his weakness. By eliminating Elektra, he would also be excising the flawed, hesitant, weak half of himself. 

“You think you can turn him, you pathetic child?” Snoke asked Elektra. “I cannot be betrayed. I cannot be beaten. I see his mind. I see his every intent.” 

Elektra’s eyes were pleading and Kylo just stared into them, his attention focused on what he had resolved to do. 

The Supreme Leader closed his eyes. This was a drama best appreciated through the Force, not the crude approximation offered by mundane senses. “Yes. I see him turning the lightsaber to strike true.” 

Kylo had held out the hilt of his lightsaber so it was pointed directly at Elektra’s chest; she saw it in her vision while she still held eye contact with her brother, hearing Snoke’s words. But what she didn’t see, was using Kylo using two fingers on the hand that was behind his back to control Luke’s lightsaber to rotate silently on the armrest of Snoke’s throne; unnoticed by either the Supreme Leader or the Praetorian guards.

“And now, foolish child, he ignites it. And kills his true enemy!”

Kylo’s fingers flex downwards into his fist, the blue energy blade of Luke’s lightsaber sprang into existence, spearing Snoke. 

The hold on Elektra released, her falling onto her knees and towering over in a heap on the floor. She then peers over at Snoke, astonished at the sight of him being impaled in the side by the blue lightsaber; all of her brother’s doing. His true enemy was never her, it was Snoke, and he had brought destruction to the Supreme Leader. Just like how Elektra warned. 

Kylo’s two fingers unhinge from his fist and with a flick, the blade carved through his master, cutting him in two, and flew through the air. Elektra reached up with her left, catching the saber as the top half of Snoke’s body fell onto the floor and she stood. She held the lightsaber with both of her hands, adjusting her grip and locks eyes with her brother as he just gave her an expression of mutual understanding, activating his own lightsaber. 

They both twirl around, standing back-to-back as they crimson armored Praetorians were blurs of motion. Four sets of pairs, each pair brandishing the same variant of deadly edged weapons as they charged at the twins. Kylo and Elektra, as a team, as brother and sister, they began fighting.

Kylo blocks an attack from the left as Elektra blocked from her left and swinging to the right to fend off another. Kylo then ducks down, an axe swinging over his head as he twirls his lightsaber and stabs it into the floor to create sparks. Elektra bats off her pursuers, glancing over her shoulder to see her brother needed help and she jabs her lightsaber forwards, stabbing the one guard in the stomach as Kylo blocks another blow. She turns back, seeing three guards on her and she thrusts her right arm upwards, sheltering herself from their attacks. Kylo then strikes down a guard, thrusting his body backwards in a low hunch against his sister’s and Elektra arched onto his back; placing herself onto his spine and kicks back the guard that stood on the outer left side. 

The both of them, in sync. Stronger together.


	11. Join Me

Another transport was incinerated and vanished, and this time Leia flinched, closing her eyes. All those lives lost; people she had recruited or attracted to her cause, fought alongside, sent into danger and been unable to save. They were gone forever, snuffed out in an instant, and there was nothing she could do. 

Poe, unable to stand it, hurried to the cockpit. By the time he got there the First Order’s gunners had destroyed three more transports. 

“Give it full thrusters. Full speed!” He urged the pilot. 

“I am, sir.” She replied just as another transport blew up right in front of them. 

“You murdering bastard!” Finn howls at the sight of DJ counting his money, struggling to break through the Stormtroopers’ grip.

DJ looks up from his work, surprised. “T-T-Take it easy, Big F. They blow you up today, you blow them up tomorrow. It’s just business.” 

“You’re wrong.” 

“Maybe.” He replied. 

And it hit Finn. DJ would learn too late just how wrong he was. 

Yes, there were double dealers around the conflict; arm dealers and financiers and grifters like DJ, drawn to money and mister like mynocks to a whisper of energy in deep space. But that didn’t mean the conflict itself was their invention. It wasn’t some cynical exercise beyond anyone’s control. It was a showdown between those who believed in freedom, with all its messiness and uncertainties, and those who worshipped order, and saw murder on an unimaginable scale as a fair price for that order. 

And everyone was caught up in that conflict, whether they admitted it or not. There were no bystanders and no neutrals, and no difference between what you did when faced with an evil regime and who you were. 

You could pretend that regime didn’t exist, or rationalize its excesses away, or seek to insulate yourself through wealth or connections, or flee it and hide, or hope that for whatever capricious reason it would crush people other than you. And all of those things were easy to do. The harder thing by far was to fight, to attract that murderous regime’s attention, and become an object of its malice. But that was the only thing to do. Those who chose something else were hoping that the monster they had ignored would eat them last. 

Finn had fought. It had taken him awhile to understand that running wasn’t an answer, but he had figured it out. He had fought to save Elektra and Rey, at first, but Poe had been right. This was far larger than one person, or two, or two billion. And so Finn had fought for Poe, too. And for General Organa. And for Rose who’d lost her sister and her parents and her planet and responded by fighting even harder. 

Snoke’s Praetorian guards advanced on Kylo in silence, their faces concealed by the faceplates of their helmets. He swung his lightsaber down on the guard’s bladed weapon, the edges enhanced by ultrasonic generators. He thrust upwards with his saber, the fiery crossguards catching the blade and brought it down in an arch before elbowing the guard in the face, and grabbed him behind the neck as he kicked away another guard that ran up on him. Kylo then threw the guard that he held behind the head at the other which knocks them both to the ground. 

With Elektra she was fighting against two guards, their blades whirling and whining. She shifted her feet, raising her lightsaber to meet one guard’s polearm as he tried to split her skull open. The impact sent painful vibrations shooting up her arms and into her shoulders. She shakes it off, spinning and lifts her leg for balance, slicing the stomach of the one to send him down onto the floor. The other guard had a whip for a weapon, throwing it at her but she deflected it with the saber, catching the blade and Elektra began straining as its segments were sparking and flashing.

The guard began coiling up the whip with his arms, bringing Elektra closer and closer to his body and within an arm’s reach, he grabbed her neck and began choking her. She remembered her training of the Stormtroopers, whipping her body under and around behind the guard and brought the end of the saber through his side to stake him as sparks flew. Elektra then pulls back harshly, and whips the lightsaber forwards to throw the locked whip on the blade free; having it hit the wall. 

She faces forwards, a guard yanking his polearm apart, slashing towards her with a blade in each hand. Elektra then displayed her own slashing, the blue glow of the lightsaber wheeling around in front of her body as she let out a war shriek and took a swing at the oncoming opponent. 

Kylo had excitement and hunger, as if he became a beast finally freed to confront his tormentors. And he was. He took on two guards, blocking their weapons with his lightsaber, trapping them in the crossguards as they shoved him backwards. His head shoots up, the Force warning him that another was coming to strike down on him but he was fast, thrusting up on his saber which broke away the two guards. He charged forwards, stabbing the oncoming guard in the chest and held onto the back on his head, holding him there for a minute before discarding the body off to the side. 

Kylo raises his lightsaber up and in front of his face, stretched to ward off the surrounding Praetorian guards that were enclosing around him. His lightsaber fiercely crackling as he moved it, tracking down the movements of the predators until he had seen Elektra fighting; her blocking one blow but the guard was gaining on her, slicing her arm with his voulge, missing her with the deadly blade but striking her with his weapon’s crimson housing. She backs off with a yelp of pain, trying to will feeling back into her tingling fingers. 

He pants, eyes wide to see his little sister being bested and heard a guard behind him shift his polearm into a whip and drops his lightsaber downwards as he thinks and plans out his attack. Kylo spins around, going for the one with the whip and blocks, swooping under to defend himself from another hit and another another from two different guards. He spins back, slashing at the whip holder’s legs and grabs the polearm of the one, holding it upwards above his own head before impaling the third. He then pushes off the polearm and decapitates the whip guard before running off to give distance between him and the remaining two that were still on him. 

Elektra sweeps the lightsaber at the guard that was still tracking her down as she scurried backwards, the right arm coming down to strike and she switches the lightsaber over to her left hand and blocks it. The guard then kicks out his foot, hitting her in the stomach and she jerks back, landing on her stomach onto the floor. She was tiring but still, she got onto her knees and violently jerks the lightsaber before her to try and hold off the guard while she stood up. 

Elektra was breathing hard now. The guard with the two blades rushed her again.

Kylo downed another guard with a polearm and his lightsaber, crushing him between the two weapons until the last one storms up, swiping for his neck. He bends back viciously, the guard spinning around, going for his legs and Kylo jumps back to the point of almost slipping and falling onto his belly. The polearm swings down, him grabbing it with all of his strength until the guard swings it around, getting behind Kylo and forcing him into a kneeling position. The guard then hoists the pole against his throat, keeping him in a chokehold as Kylo struggles. 

Elektra managed to knock the one blade out of the guard’s hand, her swinging the lightsaber into the arm but he moves, capturing Elektra’s arm and bent it down which caused her to shout in surprise. He raises her up, placing the voulge at the base of her neck and she held back his arm that wielded it, trying to push it away as she panted. Quickly thinking, she released the lightsaber from her right hand and dropped her entire body downwards in a crouch, capturing it with her left in a reverse grip. She sends the blade through her opponent’s kneecaps and stands, slicing at the neck and watched as his body sags back and off the platform. 

A strange sound then reached her ears and she felt a sudden spike of fear in the Force. 

She spins, seeing her brother in a headlock and his face was red from not receiving any oxygen. Her eyes then scanned around, seeing his black lightsaber lying on the floor where it had dropped. Kylo had one hand on his enemy’s weapon and the other, empty, was flailing for purchase. 

“Ben!” Elektra calls, hurling her lightsaber across the room. 

Kylo raised his hand and the lightsaber smacked in it as if drawn there. His eyes looked at the ancient weapon he had sought so avidly, his eyes blazing. He ignites it, then turned it off almost immediately. The guard behind him slumped to the floor, a smoking hole in his red helmet. 

He stands, still holding the lightsaber and he throws the voulge away from him, staring at his sister as they stood amid the smoke and carnage, gasping for breath. Elektra’s eyes were filled with joy. 

The deck of Snoke’s throne room thrummed and the air was lit by the glow of turbolaser fire. Elektra rushed to the oculus, staring at the pinpricks of light that represented the Resistance fleet.

So few. 

“The fleet. Order them to stop firing. There’s still time to save the fleet!” 

She turns, seeing her brother walking over to the base of where the throne was, standing to stare at Snoke’s; staring down at the body of his master. Above them, the First Order banners burned. 

“Ben?” 

“It’s time to let old things die.” His voice had neither fear nor anger, there was just deep resolve. He faces her, continuing. “Snoke, Skywalker. The Sith, the Jedi, the Rebels, the Order. Let it all die.” 

Kylo began stepping closer to her and Elektra just stared at him in disbelief, her eyes getting watery. 

“Elektra,” he raises his hand out to her. “I want you to join me. We can rule together and bring a new order to the galaxy.” 

“Don’t do this.” Elektra shook her head. “You’re Ben. Ben Solo, it’s the name of your true self that you’ve chosen to forget. There’s good in you, the dark hasn’t driven it out completely; you know it’s true.”

“No, no.” He shouts, getting angry but posing no threat to her. “You’re still holding on! Let go!” 

“You can’t run away from who you are.” Elektra tells him. 

Kylo studies her for a moment, lowering his hand back down to his side. “You have.”

She shivers, trying to find the strength to deny him, to shove him away. But he was right. She did run away from who she was, but she had a reason unlike him. She couldn’t go back to being who she was, she no longer deserved to be Bre Solo. Only Elektra Ren. 

“You and I both know you that chose this.” 

“Oh, you expect me to believe that?” 

“You wanted it until you didn’t. Then, you blamed me for it.” 

Elektra shook her head; never once did she blame him for her choices. Was he the reason for them? Yes. But to blame him? Never. 

“You hated me.” He takes another step closer to her, staring at her small, pudgy face. “Say it.” His voice is small, soft. 

“You know what you did.” She replied coldly.

Kylo did know. He killed their father, and she was so upset and hurt over it that she chose that time and place to finally display her Force abilities to him. To fight him and almost kill him in a blind rage until she realized what she was doing, what she was capable of. He wasn’t much of an emotional person, mostly keeping to himself, but Kylo felt isolated. 

Just the mere thought of his sister not trusting him, not wanting to be at his side, it gave him such anxiety and grief. He needed his sister to stand with him, to be at his side because without her, he’d have nothing. Sure, he’d still have the Force and be a leader of the First Order but it wasn’t worth it without Elektra. She was, and still is, the only person who ever sided with him. Who believed in him. She never downgraded him, made him feel confined to what he was expected to be, and allowed him to be himself without any problems. 

And so, he made another attempt. 

His right gloved hand stretches out to her. “Join me.”

Elektra allows tears to slip from her eyes, gazing down at her brother’s hand and how his fingers flexed for hers; longing for her embrace. Her heart began to hurt, more tears seeping from her tear ducts as she tried to keep her emotions contained, fearing that they would overwhelm her. Slowly, her eyes flicker back up to his face. 

Kylo takes another step, eyes softening as his bottom lip quivers and his own brown eyes begin to get glassy from holding back his tears. He loved Elektra so much, more than anyone or anything, and he couldn’t bear the idea of her rejecting him. 

“Please.” He pleads in a whisper.

On the Raddus, Holdo hastily rechecked that the heavy cruiser’s navicomputer hadn’t kicked back the overrides that she’d had to program into it. Proximity alerts flashed on the console, but she ignored them. The First Order flagship began to slide across space ahead of the Raddus, outside the temporary bridge’s viewports. Turbolaser fire continued to lance out from its bow, destroying the Resistance transports seeking safety on Crait. 

Holdo reminded herself that there was only one way to help the evacuees. Readying the ship. 

Captain Peavey stood at attention on the Supremacy’s bridge, watching as yet another Resistance transport vanished into flame. Hux entered the bridge just as a monitor called up from one of the crew pits. 

“Sir, the Resistance cruiser is preparing to jump to lightspeed.” 

Peavey turned an inquiring glance to Hux, hoping the hotheaded young general wouldn’t do something rash. And for once, he didn’t. 

“It’s empty. They’re just trying to pull our attention away. Pathetic. Keep your fire on those transports.” 

Phasma stares down at Rose and Finn. “Execution by blaster is too good for them. Let’s make this hurt.” Rose looked over at Finn, who was trying to break the Stormtroopers’ grip on him, and had a strange thought. At least she was dying beside him. 

Two Troopers with laser axes came marching up to them and with a touch of the activation switch, each ax haft sprouted four pairs of emitter claws. Suspended between each was a monomolecular filament of brillant cyan energy that could cut through anything. 

A sputtering buzz rose from the energy filaments, a noise Finn had always found weird and unsettling. Each time he;d drawn execution duty, he;d devoutly hoped the day would end without him having to carry out such an order. He wondered if the Troopers shosen today had hoped the same thing. 

Rose and Finn were kicked down, laying on their stomachs and staring at each other as the axes were placed by their necks. Rose utters Finn’s name, fearing that it’d be the last thing she’d ever say. 

“On my command.” Phasma orders. 

Poe watched in despair as another transport was destroyed. Just six remained, all unarmed and defenseless, between the First Order and galactic domination. He tried to imagine anything that might change their fate, but there was nothing. 

Connix focused on the Raddus, seeing it turning and aiming for the Supremacy and noticed the hyperspace engines priming. “She’s running away.” 

Poe studied the cruiser. “No, she isn’t.” 

There was nowhere to run, and Holdo knew it. Besides, Poe had been on the bridge. There’d been no courses loaded into the navicomputer until he’d programmed one himself. 

He knew what Holdo planned to do. 

In the ruined throne room, Elektra regarded Kylo’s gloved hand, held out to her in supplication. She began reaching out with her own, it hovering over her brother’s and her eyes focused back on him. He was still, waiting. A part of him was mildly annoyed but that was just in his nature, however, the other part was hopeful and she could see it in his eyes. 

Before Kylo realized her aim, she had snatched Luke’s lightsaber out of his grasp with the Force. The weapon flying toward her hand then, it froze in midair. Kylo had flung up his left hand, harnessing the Force to arrest the lightsaber’s flight. 

The weapon hung in the air between them, quivering faintly. Elektra stared at it, willing it into her grasp but Kylo was pulling it toward him with equal determination; both twins panting from trying to outdo the other. 

Elektra could feel the Force heaving like the sea on Ahch-To, whipped into a furry by their attempts to manipulate it. And she could feel the kyber crystal at the heart of the weapon seeking a resonance, trying to find harmony where there was only dissonance. Caught in their tug of war, the crystal seemed keen in the Force, a wail that Elektra could feel in her bones. 

Ahead of the Supremacy, the Mon Calamari warship was staring it down and Peavey waited for the ship to vanish, followed by the telltale twisting of space and burst of Cronau radiation that marked hyperspace wake. He idly tried to imagine where the heavy cruiser might be heading. It didn’t much matter, Peavey doubted the cruiser had enough fuel for another jump once it arrived. 

But the cruiser hadn't jumped. Peavey leaned forward, curious, and realized the other officers were doing the same. Horrified realization etched on their faces. They knew what the Resistance captain planned to do. 

“No.” Peavey remarks. 

“Fire on that cruiser!” Hux screams in an order, pointing out towards the ship. 

The Force jolts within the throne room, pushing the two twins away from each other, their feet sliding back along the floor as their stances kept the same with arms still raised in reach for the lightsaber and knees bent. Wind picks up, becoming a vortex that swirled all around Elektra and Kylo which picked up dust from the floor and blew back their wild manes. 

The twins still fought, neither willing to give so much as a millimeter in their standoff. 

Kylo clenches his teeth, focusing on the saber but then takes a glance at Elektra to see her persistent; her face scrunched together, teeth baring and she lets out a groan as the Force was weighing in on her and she began to feel everything that was around her. 

“Execute.” Phasma calls as the Troopers raised their axes, Finn and Rose shutting their eyes tightly as they braced for impact. 

Holdo pressed up the yoke, the Raddus accelerated to the speed of light. 

Finally, the crystal sheared apart, its unleashed energy tearing the lightsaber’s housing in half and filling the throne room with a flash of brilliant, blinding white and a pulse that threw Elektra and Kylo off their feet and backwards through the air. 

The Raddus tore through the First Order flagship, shearing it in two and leaving a fiery trail to mark its ruinous passage through the string of Star Destroyers flying in formation with it. Soldiers and crewers cheered and hugged, but Poe and Leia remained silent and solemn, weighed down by Holdo’s sacrifice. 

Though ripped in two, the Mega Destroyer continued to hurtle through space along its head heading; the Raddus had passed through it at such astonishing speed that what was left intact barely slowed.

The transports, now unhindered, flew on. 

When Finn’s eyes snapped open he discovered that Rose was struggling to drag him across the starship’s deck. All around them was chaos; thick smoke filled the hangar, the bodies of Stormtroopers littered the floor, and sirens blared. He tried to figure out what happened. He’d been tensing for whatever followed having one’s head removed from one’s body, and hoping the old barracks tales of severed heads studying their surroundings and trying to speak weren’t true. Then the hangar shook, hard enough that all the Stormtroopers crashed to the deck around them. An enormous sound had filled his ears, the hangar, everything. 

And then darkness. 

“Finn! Come on!” 

Rose yanked on his hand, pulling him up onto his feet and towards a First Order shuttle but they stopped, seeing Phasma emerging from the smoke with two dozen Troopers arrayed behind her. They fanned out, blocking their route to the shuttle, and raised their rifles. 

“Traitor!” She shouts.

Then Finn stumbles backwards from an eruption of heat and light that sent Stromtroopers hurtling in all directions. Amid a thunderclap of sound, Finn looked over to see a two legged scout walker struggling to free itself from moorings. As if fired another barrage of shots, the cables holding it in place ripped away the walker’s cabin, revealing BB-8 at the controls. 

Finn and Rose exchange looks before ducking under a laser blast, seeking for weapons. Rose got a blaster and Finn grabbed one of the executioners axes, turning to see Phasma staring him down with a short steel baton off her utility belt. Finn activates the axe, running and batted a Trooper before he leaps at her, bringing the axe down towards her head but she blocks with her baton. 

“You’re a bug in the system.” Her voice drips with contempt. 

“Let’s go, Chrome Dome!” Finn yells back, taking a wild swing with the axe. She blocked it and nearly ran him through, forcing him to give ground. Behind her, the scout walker was taking apart the hangar piece by piece, the Stormtroopers forced to flee from its murderous fire. 

Growling, Phasma whipped her spear at Finn, alternating vicious jabs with slashes aimed at his head, chest, and legs. He parried with the haft of the axe, sparks leaping with each impact, and blocking each and every blow. 

“Come on!” He shouts to her.

She rained blows on him from every direction, driving him steadily backward and forcing him to dodge to avoid tripping over the bodies of Stormtroopers killed by the blast that had knocked him unconscious. Phasma was maneuvering him toward a shaft on the hangar floor, he realized it was probably a lift for bringing heavy equipment up from a lover level. Flames were licking out of the opening. 

Rose kept up a steady stream of fire at the Stormtroopers, taking advantage of their preoccupation with BB-8 and leaving several motionless on the deck. She tried to line up a shot at the chrome armored Stormtrooper but she dodged a blow from Finn and the opportunity was lost. Finn, she saw, was being driven back toward a flaming pit in the deck. Rose yelled for him to be careful, but there was nothing she could do. As she watched in horror, Phasma knocked him into the inferno. 

“No!” She screams and Phasma turns quick, drawing out her blaster and fires as she hid behind a metal crate. 

Finn then emerged from the pit, riding atop the turbolift he’d landed on. “Hey.” He gives her a nod then strikes her in the helmet with a vicious uppercut with his axe. The blow knocked Phasma down, splitting her mask open and she laid there for a moment; stunned. 

Slowly, his turns, staring up at him and through the shattered chrome Finn could see a pale blue eye in a pale face. 

“You were always scum.” 

“Rebel scum.” Finn replied coolly, and a moment later the floor collapsed around his former commander. Phasma fell, vanishing into the fire. 

BB-8 maneuvered the scout walker near Finn, him seeing the droid and Rose. “Hey, need a lift?” 

He leapt atop the walker, which stomped across the hangar floor before breaking through the window and Rose hit the accelerator and the shuttle leapt forward, flames rising around it. It quivered as it passed through the magnetic field that kept the hangar’s atmosphere contained, then steadied. Rose dipped its nose, leaving the doomed First Order warship in their wake. 

Elektra groans, eyes fluttering open while her body aches and her numbed senses coming back to life. She remembered the lightsaber breaking, feeling Finn and Rose through the Force, and Holdo with the Resistance cruiser, aiming for the Supremacy with the intent of survival and determination. And Kylo. Her thoughts went directly to him, the top half of her body sitting up and head turning to see him lying in a heap on his side. 

“Elektra.” Rey had broken herself through the turbolift doors, seeing the massive destruction and carnage that took place since she was locked out for it and had signaled Chewie for him to return back to rescue her and Elektra. 

She saw Snoke’s body, the dead guards, Kylo motionless and lastly, Elektra.

“Elektra.” She loudly whispers, noticing how the sleeve on her arm was sliced open, a small wound on her. “You are okay?” She hurries over, crouching beside her. 

The girl nods, her eyes still lingering on her brother’s figure. He was turned away from her, making her not able to see if he was breathing and that scared her. 

“Ben.” She utters, forcing herself to stand up to go and check up on him, but falters back down on her butt, seeing the broken pieces of their family’s lightsaber in the middle of the floor. She proceeds to crawl on her hands and knees, retrieving the two pieces and stares at her brother again. 

Rey tells her that they need to leave, that the ship was broken in two halves and was on fire. She eyes her friend, seeing her worried face and takes one last look at Kylo. It reminded Elektra of Starkiller Base. Everything around the two siblings was crumbling apart while she stared him down in his weak state and felt herself being upset with her own doing. 

This time, it was different. 

Kylo had killed Snoke to protect her, and the future was now a range of possibilities that were constantly reshaped by the outcome of events that seemed minor and decisions that seemed small. It was very hard not to see the future that dominated your hopes or fears as fixed and immutable, when in fact it was just one of many. And more often than not, awareness of the Force wouldn’t help you find the path through those branching, twisting possibilities. 

The Force could show you the future, certainly but which future? The one that was to be? Or the one that you yourself would bring about, drawn to it helplessly? Even if that was the future you most hoped to avoid? 

Elektra learned that the Force was not her instrument, that she was its. She also knew that Kylo, despite his determination to bend it to his will, would learn that too. The Force wasn’t finished with him, or her; she sensed it. All she needed to do was wait, however difficult that would be. 

She gets up onto her feet with Rey’s help, leaving the room in a hurry.

The Raddus had hit left center, sparing the section of the Mega Destroyer that housed the overbridge and the throne room. Which was fortunate for Hux as the bridge descended into chaos, he had hurried to the turbolift connecting it with the Supreme Leader’s sanctum. It wasn’t until after he’d stepped into the lift and used his code cylinder to access the throne room that he realized it might not work. 

He looked around frantically, gripped by the fear that he’d consigned himself to an ignominious end; the architect of the First Order’s military domination spending his last moments trapped in a turbolift. But the lift descended so smoothly, Hux had no idea anything was wrong. 

Then the doors opened and that illusion was snuffed out. 

A single glance was enough to tell Hux that Snoke was dead. But Ren was merely unconscious, his chest rising and falling. 

Hux stepped out and headed for the Supreme Leader’s body, in shock for a moment, trying to process everything that had happened and calculate everything that could happen next. 

The First Order’s flagship, which was also its mobile capital, its greatest shipyard, and so much more, was doomed. Yet the Resistance had been reduced to a pathetic handful of ships trapped on a backwater world. And the New Republic was no closer to resurrection. The imminent end of the Supremacy would change surprisingly little about the balance of power in the galaxy.

But one thing was certain. The First Order would need a new Supreme Leader. 

Snoke was dead. Ren was not. 

Moving quietly and carefully, Hux stepped away from the Supreme Leader’s corpse and looked down at Ren. His hand creeping to the pistol in his holster.

Kylo stirred, his eyes fluttering. 

Huz turned the move for his blaster into scratching at a phantom itch on his leg and took a step back. When Kylo’s eyes opened he would find the general looking down at him with apparent concern. 

“What happened?” Hux asked him. 

It took Kylo a moment to gather himself, knowing that he couldn’t say that he killed Snoke and he knew that he couldn’t throw his own sister under to save his own skin. So he said the only thing he could. 

“The girl, Rey, she murdered Snoke.”

The throne room lurched sickeningly around them. Hux knew what that meant, the complex system of inertial dampeners and acceleration compensators that protected the core decks of the Supremacy was failing. They had to hurry. But Kylo was confused. He braced himself, staring out in disbelief at the mangled half of the flagship and the wrecked Star Destroyers beyond it. 

“What happened?” Kylo asks, seeing Hux’s expression. 

“Soft Ren and the scavenger took Snoke’s escape craft.” The general replied. 

Kylo considered that. Elektra had recovered first. She must have realized he was at her mercy, yet she’d left him alive once again. Did she check in on him? Did she even care after not taking his hand? 

“We know where they’re going.” He snaps at Hux. “Get our forces down to that Resistance base. Let’s finish this.” He began heading for the turbolift. 

The general fixes on him, a look of disdain. “Finish this? Who do you think you’re talking to? You presume to command my army?” Kylo stops moving and Hux steps after him, his voice raising in anger. “Our Supreme Leader is dead! We have no ruler!”

Hux then began choking as Kylo turned, using the Force and directing it to coil around his throat. 

“The Supreme Leader is dead.” 

Hux ended down on his knees, his airway closed and the world began to go grey as his eyes were wide with fear. 

“Long live the Supreme Leader.” 

Kylo then releases him, the gesture offhand and almost contemptuous, leaving Hux to gasp for air. 

Elektra’s fingers traced the beacon on her wrist that she hidden under her sleeve, remembering how her mother Leia said it’d light her way home. But home to what? She hadn’t seen exactly how many transports had escaped, but she knew it was only a handful. The First Order commanders would be bent on destroying the survivors. 

And Kylo would be one of those commanders. 

Her eyes watched as the First Order warships descended on Crait, her and Rey waiting on Chewie as they sat in silence and Elektra knew the future would unfold as the Force willed. 

“You and Kylo.” Elektra hears Rey’s tender voice speak and she pulls her attention from the window to her friend staring up at her. “You’re close.” 

“When we were kids, but it changed.” 

Elektra recalls, thinking back to all the good times they had; the laughs, the late nights, the talks, the pranks. Everything. It made her gaze drift, settling on the wall before her and Rey just sat and witnessed her go somewhere else mentally while she spoke with a soften voice. 

“I really looked up to him when I was young. More than anyone.” Elektra then felt herself shiver, the haunting truth making its presence known from within and releasing itself through her lips nonchalantly. “More than my dad even.” 

_Han Solo . . . Was Elektra happy to see you?_ Kylo had asked their father that once he finally saw him because he knew his sister like the back of his hand. Kylo knew that Elektra favored him over their father. He knew that she felt guilty over it because Han did try his best in his own way which felt forced and not genuine. 

She never wanted to admit it aloud but now, she was and it had made her shut her eyes in a surrender. The shame lingering under the skin, nesting in her bones, and weighing heavy in her lungs.


	12. I'm Sorry

Crait was a small planet of vast white plains streak with red and shot through with thin ribbons of blue, boarded by high, thin mountain ranges. Leia let her mind go back decades, to the first time she’d seen this lonely world. She’d been a teenager then, an apprentice legislator in the Imperial Senate and a princess preparing to claim the crown of Alderaan, as per her homeworld’s ancient traditions. 

Clues in obscure records had convinced Leia that something was happening on Crait, and she’d recklessly taken it on herself to investigate to only stumble across an insurgent camp. One that had been established by her father, using Alderaanian credits funneled into secret accounts by her mother. 

It had been a mining colony once, abandoned because a labor dispute ate into the profit margins. The mining company built a shelter with blast doors to guard crystal storms and that had caught Bail Organa’s eye, back when he was putting the Rebellion together. His techs added a shield against orbital bombardment, but the real work had already been done. 

Leia stood at the entrance and saw what she’d feared she’d see: the dots of new ships descending through the atmosphere. Holdo’s sacrifice had knocked the First Order back on its heels and given them time to reach the planet, but the respite had been temporary. 

“They’re coming,” she said grimly. “Shut the door.”

Poe relayed Leia’s orders, shouting into the dim interior of the mine. The Resistance evacuees were busy doing any of a hundred things: unloading crates of equipment from the transports, trying to get consoles powered up, and passing out rifles and blast helmets. 

“Ger that shield door down and take cover!” Poe yelled. 

An eerie tinkling noise reached his ears and he spied pinpricks of light at the back of the cavernous interior, in the deep shadows beyond the transports. He looked more closely, wondering if he was seeing things but no, it wasn’t his imagination. There really were animals back there; dozens of them. They were small, not much higher than a person’s knee, with long and pointy ears, and drooping whiskers framing their faces. Their bodies glittered in the transports’ lights, and Poe realized what he’d thought was fur was actually a dense covering of crystal bristles. When the creatures moved, their fur made a sound that reminded him of the wind chimes of distant Pamarthe. 

Whatever they were, they posed no threat. They weren’t hostile, just baffled that the quiet of their den had been disrupted by strange, two-legged invaders. Nor did they fear the new arrivals, after a few moments of indecision they snuffled at the Resistance soldiers curiously. 

The massive door was creeping downward. Poe silently urged it not to jam its tracks or run out of power before it shut. 

“Poe!”

That was Leia. He hurried across the base’s interior, dodging Resistance crewers, and stood next to her, just outside the heavy door. His boots crunched through boose bits of salt that he previously thought was snow, and the air had a tang that was sharp in his nose. 

A bat winged ship was racing across the plains, barreling directly for the base. Six TIE fighters were trailing it. Poe couldn’t tell if they were escorts or pursuers, but the Resistance soldiers outside must have seen something he hadn’t because they opened fire. 

Poe expected the shuttle to veer off but saw at the last moment that the pilot was too desperate to do so. Poe backpedaled frantically and dived for cover as the shuttle’s top wing struck the blast door with an earsplitting screech. The wing sheared away and the craft tumbled across the deck, scattering Resistance fighters, and kidded to a halt in a shower of sparks. Behind it, the door shut with a deep boom. 

Leia picked up a rifle and started raking the front of the shuttle with blasterfire. Poe and several soldiers joined her, and the shuttle’s viewports exploded. 

Someone yelled frantically and a familiar pair of hands emerged from the shattered window, raised in surrender. 

“Don’t shoot!” Finn cried out. “It’s us!”

Once the firing stopped he popped his head out, next to a wide eyed Rose. 

“Finn! Rose!” Poe lowers his blaster. “You’re not dead! Where’s my droid?” 

The ramp descended and BB-8 rolled out, whistling energetically. 

“Buddy!” Poe ran for the astromech, kneeling and patting his head and trying to make sense of the answering stream of the droidspeak. “Really? That sounds intense. Look, we’re a little busy but you’ll have to tell me all about it later.” 

Finn, still shaken, tried to get his breath. Rose looked around the base’s interior, shock and dismay on her face. Six transports, a hundred or so people. 

“Is this all that’s left?” She asks. 

But Finn had no comfort to offer her. No one did. 

Leia had remembered the way to the base’s control room, but she wasn’t prepared for what poor condition it would be in. Years of salt corrosion had left the controls rusty and pitted, and the musk in the air suggested the foxlike creatures had made it part of their home. 

Fortunately, the guts of the base’s systems had been sheltered and shielded. A few splices and workarounds and a hasty search for batteries got the key equipment powered up and more or less functional. 

Poe exhaled and nodded to Finn and Leia. 

“Alright,” he told the Resistance members who had pressed into service as technicians. “Shields are up so they can’t hurt us from orbit. Use all our power to broadcast a distress signal to the Outer Rim.” 

“Use my personal code,” Leia informs them. “If there are any allies to the Resistance, it’s now or never.” 

Rose entered the control room, and Poe could see the exhaustion on her face and in the way she held herself. She was barely keeping herself together.

“Rose, what have we got?” 

“Rotted munitions, rusted artillery, some half-hutted skim speeders.” 

Poe nodded. There was nothing he could say, if the base had a secret stash of gunships or hidden turbolasers, Leia would have known about it. 

Finn scowled and Poe knew what his friend was thinking, that they’d traded being dead in space for being dead in a hole. After all, it was what they were thinking. 

“Well, let’s pray that big ass door holds long enough for us to get help.” 

As if in answer, a boom rattled the room—deep, low, and resonant. A trickle of red dust fell from the ceiling. 

A number of exterior cams provided a view of the sodium plains surrounding the base, and a few of those cams has survived the long years of inactivity. Finn peered through a viewing apparatus in the control room, seeing a dozen huge First Order transports descending in perfect formation. That didn’t match any procedure he was familiar with, and after a moment, he saw that they were lowering a massive cylinder. It touched down and he could feel the ground shake. He cranked up the magnification on the scope and shook his head when he saw what they had delivered. 

“A battering ram cannon.”

“A what now?” Poe stares at the back of his head. 

“Miniaturized Death Star tech. It’ll crack that door open like an egg.” 

Rose then turns to Poe. “There has to be a back way out of here, right?” 

BB-8 rolls up to them, beeping, C-3PO tottered along in the eager astromech’s wake. All eyes turned to the droids with whatever hope could be mustered. Behind the two droids, Finn saw the glowing eyes of more crystal foxes. The creatures had gotten over their fear of the Resistance members and seemed curious about them, though they remained easily spooked. 

“BB-8 has analyzed the mine schematics. This is the only way in or out.” C-3PO remarks, motioning towards the door. 

Another impact rattled the control room as the First Order continued testing the strength of the massive door. The faces around him were bleak with despair, even Poe’s. 

Finn shook his head. He didn’t come this far just to let the First Order win. And he knew none of the rest of them had, either. They just needed to remember that. 

“Come on. We have allies. People believe in Leia. They’ll get our message, they’ll come. But we have to buy time. We got to take out that cannon.” 

The ski speeder hangar became an assembly line, with Rose and several other newly minted technicians directing astromechs to check each craft’s systems and make a determination: ready to fly, needs repairs, cannibalize for parts. 

No ski speeder fell into the first category, but with a little creative thinking and hasty tinkering Rose and the techs were able to get thirteen ships primed and powered, even maid the rhythmic booms of impacts on the shield door and reports that the First Order had landed tug walkers and started dragging their siege cannon across the salt plains. 

Poe was helping General Ematt prepare a last line of defense in Crait’s warren of trenches as pilots got to their feet and began donning helmets, checking headsets, and pulling on gloves. Meanwhile, techs and astromechs started firing up the ski speeders. The sound of their engines rose from a low thrum to a steady whine. 

Poe climbed into the open air cockpit of the first speeder in line. Finn was next, then Rose. She tightened the chin strap on her helmet, verified she was receiving the squadron channel, and checked her console. All systems were green, for the moment at least. 

“Everything good, Finn?” She asked. 

Finn turns, giving her a thumbs up. 

“Your comlink works, you know.” 

Another thumbs up. Fair enough. 

“Launching.” Poe calls to them. “Follow my lead.” 

His ski speeder slid forward along the guide into the low chute at the end of the hanger, and was lost from sight. But a moment later everyone heard him yelling delightedly over the squadron channel. Rose, familiar with pilots, couldn’t resist smiling. Poe would have one last ride behind a control yoke, where he was happiest. 

Finn’s speeder slid into the chute. Then Rose’s jerked forward, hesitated, and began to advance more smoothly. 

General Ematt emerged from a narrow door leading out of the mine into the old rebel trench, blinking at the brilliant light reflected off the white plains. Behind him came Sergeant Sharp, fussing with his blast helmet. The trench walls were a deep red, dusted with white. Metal planking lined the bottom of the trench, encrusted with accumulated drifts. A pair of artillery cannons loomed over the trenches. Poe had assured Ematt that they’d fire and he decided he’d believe that when he saw it—they looked like the recoil from the first shot would turn them into a pile of rust flakes. 

Inside, they were passing out blaster rifles to anyone who seemed like they were more of a danger to the enemy than to the person next to them. Passing out rifles and small arms, and checking a store of old rebel ammunition cartridges to see which had any charge left. They’d be the last line of defense, after the speeders and the artillery. Ematt hoped it wouldn’t come to it, while knowing it probably would. 

Well, if so they’d make the First Order pay a price for every millimeter of ground. 

Ematt clambered out of the trench and onto the plains, the massive shield door looming behind him. As he scanned the horizon with his quadnocs, Sharp leaned down to pinch a few snowy white flakes; tasting them and spat. 

Sharp looked back and saw that their footprints had lifted away the powdery salt, which now cakes the bottoms of their boots. Where they’d stepped, crimson crystal soil had been revealed. 

Slots opened high in the shield door and the ski speeders hurtled out,their outriggers flexing in the wind. The descent was half glide, half powered flight, and Finn fought to keep his craft stable; trying not to think about what it would be like to hit the ground. 

“Engage your mono-ski!” He heard Rose through the comlink. “The green toggle.” 

He found the control and the mono-ski emerged from the bottom of his speeder’s engine mount a moment before their ski speeders hit the salty crust. 

Their skis sliced through the layer of sodium atop the ground, kicking up a wake of crystalline dirt beneath the crust and giving each speeder a brilliant red tail that extended behind it like a flag. 

“Okay, listen up!” Poe speaks. “I don’t like these rustbuckets and I don’t like our odds.” His foot went through a panel, sending a chunk of hull plating spinning off across the plain. “What the hell?” He pulls his foot back. “Just keep it tight, and don’t get drawn in too close til they roll that cannon out front.”

Finn could see the First Order walkers in the distance ahead of them, but not the siege cannon. 

“Alright, ground forces, lay down some fire!”

The Resistance forces in the trenches heard his order and the artillery cannons opened up, blaster bolts streaking across the salt plains toward the First Order lines. A few bolts struck the walkers, but did not damage that Poe could see. 

As the wind whipped past his cockpit, Poe considered their situation and didn’t like his conclusions. The bulk of the First Order ground forces were heavy combat walkers. Each leviathan had a massive turbolaser cannon built into the top of its back, and reinforced forelimbs designed to brace against the recoil. The armor was far too heavy for the Resistance ski speeders’ blasters to penetrate. 

Above the walkers, TIE fighters circled like predatory birds. And above them, Poe’s sensors painted a lone command shuttle—undoubtedly the ship from which the assault would be directed. The speeders’ guns were powerful enough to destroy a TIE or the shuttle, but Poe knew the Resistance craft could be shredded if they tried to gain altitude and engage them. 

Poe was right about the command shuttle; it housed Kylo, Hux, and several other high ranking First Order officers, all staring down at the battlefield and monitoring sensor feeds. Kylo would have preferred to supervise the assault alone but Hux, he knew, would see the relatively straightforward operation as an opportunity for self-aggrandizement. Especially since Elektra had turned her back on him. 

Hux had eliminated a number of rivals during his rise to power, including his own father, and Kylo had no intention of joining their ranks. With Hux beside him, there was no chance of an accident befalling the command shuttle and every opportunity to remind the general and the other officers who was in charge. 

“Thirteen incoming light crafts,” Hux speaks, turning to him. “Shall we hold until we clear them?” 

“No.” Kylo replies. “The Resistance is in that mine. Push through.” 

The First Order made its move with the ski speeders still some distance from their lines, ordering the TIE fighters to abandon their holding position over the walkers and engage. Blaster bolts churned through the sodium crust, sending up plumes of red that reminded Poe unsettlingly of blood, and one of the ski speeders blossomed into flame. 

“Fighters! Break off!” He orders. 

The speeders scattered, with TIEs swooping down in pursuit. A dozen chases weaved across the plain, leaving it scarred with crimson pockmarks and slashes carved by the ski speeders’ halofoils. 

Poe brought his speeder around in a tight turn, the frame of his outrigger emitting a groan of distressed metal, took aim at a TIE fighter that was looking for an opportunity to strafe one of the speeders. Finding himself too low to line up the shot, Poe yanked back on the control yoke, letting the ski speeder bounce up above the plain. 

Still too low, the ski speeder bounced a little higher and Poe mashed down the trigger, his laser cannon spitting fire. The TIE sheared in two, its solar panels spinning off in different directions. 

Poe’s crow of triumph was cut short as he had to dodge another TIE swooping down from above, where his guns couldn’t reach. 

“We can’t match this firepower!” C’ai Threnalli warned in his native tongue. 

“We’ve got to hold them till they pull out the cannon.” Poe replied. 

Finn flinched as the speeder next to his was hit. He peered forward through the windscreen, blinking at the glare, and tried to find the First Order cannon amid the towering shapes of the combat walkers. 

Blasts carved through the ground nearbby and he juked his speeder back and forth, hoping to spoil the fighters’ aim. They were losing speeders, why wasn’t Poe ordering them to go after that cannon? 

Another speeder vanished in flames, its pilot’s cry dissolving into static. 

His eyes then widened. “Rose, you got three right behind you!”

The TIEs chased Rose’s ski speeder across the plains, laser cannons firing deadly bursts. She tried to dodge, but they still flagged her down; gaining. 

“I can’t shake ‘em!” 

Before Finn could turn to help her, all of three were incinerated. Rose missed the debris that rained down, then looked up to locate her savior. Her eyes widened at the sight of a battered freighter hurtling overhead. The ship looked like it wasn’t in much better shape then the ski speeders but somehow, it maneuvered like an X-wing. 

She didn’t recognize the ship, but Finn did and he let out a crow of triumph. 

Aboard the Millennium Falcon, Chewbacca saw the TIEs explode and let loose a Wookie battle cry—one echoed by the porg sitting on the console next to him. Elektra laughed, wearing a huge smile at the small pudgy bird and continued to fly the Falcon while Rey was in the lower turret, wheeling and firing at more of the TIEs. Another one exploded and she bared her teeth in a grin. The First Order pilots had been so busy terrorizing their groundbound prey that they’d forgotten the sky might hold other hunters. 

“Whoo! I like this!” She says, blasting yet another TIE. 

“Knew you would!” Elektra shouts down to her, shaking her head in amusement and went back to piloting. 

While they were waiting, Rey and Elektra had frustration as the First Order’s Star Destroyers formed a cordon above the planet and drop ships began descending; bearing walkers and a mysterious cylinder that Elektra recognized. 

She’d hoped Finn, Poe, and her mother were down there and hadn’t been caught aboard one of the many transports she’d seen destroyed. It was terrible to think that they might already be dead, or might die while she and Rey waited helplessly for the Falcon to return. By the time the freighter had emerged from hyperspace the two girls were frantic and annoyed Chewie enough that he silenced them with an aggrieved howl as they hurried through the air lock. 

Elektra sent the Falcon spinning away from a pair of TIEs, leaving Rey perfectly positioned to bracket one fighter in her gunsights. She took a moment to admire Elektra’s grace as a pilot, letting herself sink into the Force and allowing it to guide her actions. 

Kylo spotted the Falcon, already feeling his sister in the Force, knowing that she was piloting their father’s ship with Chewie in copilot. His anger got the best of him as he stormed to the front of the viewport and jabbed his finger out to point to it. 

“Blow that piece of junk out of the sky!” He shouts to the gunners. 

“All fighters!” Hux commands for them to do so, stripping the walker of air cover and leaving their gunners struggling to target the nimble speeders. 

As two more TIEs flowered into flame, Rey spotted more TIEs inbound, having left their positions above the First Order walkers. The fighters formed a loose line behind the Falcon, jockeying for a shot at its stern. 

Elektra sensed the danger in the Force, accelerating away from the battlefield and the TIEs strung out behind her like the tail of a child’s kite. 

From the cockpit of his ski speeder, Poe watched in amusement as all the TIEs chased the Falcon, vanishing into the skies to the north. 

“She drew ‘em off! All of ‘em!” 

“Oh, they _hate_ that ship!” Exulted Finn. 

Ahead of Elektra, a crevasse split the salt pan like a great red wound. The freighter dipped down into it and the walls of the canyon were studded with outcroppings of red crystal that flashed in the sun. 

The gun was grazing the minerals, spitting sparks and Rey was worried. “Elektra!” 

“Hold on!” She turned the ship, entering an opened cave and weaved in through the ridges. 

Behind them, two TIEs collided, the pilots misreading each other’s intentions as they sought a safe heading through the rapidly narrowing crevasse. The explosions sent chunks of crystal spinning away from the walls. One block punctured the main viewport of a fighter, sending it spiraling into the walls. And Rey peppered the other TIEs with murderous fire before the Falcon took another turn, entering a small tunnel, the gun grazing the wall and spitting sparks once again. 

Elektra finally found her opening, thrusting the yoke upwards and the freighter burst through the surface and high up into the sky; spraying fragments of crystals behind it. 

“There it is!” Rose yelled over the comm. 

Poe saw what had caught her eye: two tug walkers were dragging the siege cannon out front of the main force. The tugs reminded Poe of massive beetles, stumping along on multiple hexagonal limbs. Thich cables connected the tugs to the cannon, hauling it along with minimal help from its repulsorlifts.

“That is a big gun.” Rose gulps. 

Shorn of their fighter cordon, the First Order commanders had apparently decided to press the attack. The walkers sent blast after blast in the direction of the Resistance redoubt, scattering soldiers in the trenches. 

“Okay, it’s heavily armored.Our only shot is right down the throat.” Finn informs them as the six remaining ski speeders raced for the cannon. 

The core of the siege cannon began to glow brightly, and Poe saw smoke rising from it. As he watched in disbelief, the sodium began to melt in front of the cannon, the crust running like liquid. Even at this distance, he could feel the heat of it. 

“The cannon’s opening. This is our chance.”

Inside the command shuttle, Kylo felt himself getting uneasy. He didn’t think the speeders could damage the massive cannon, which was almost ready to start the firing sequence but he’d also thought Starkiller Base was impregnable until his mother’s vermin had turned the superweapon into a debris ring in the Unknown Regions. 

“Firepower on those speeders.” 

“Concentrate _all_ fire on the speeders!” Hux steps up next to him, shouting. 

Kylo just pauses, slowly gazing up to Hux, completely conflicted and even bothered by the general. He only wanted the speeders to be scared, to retreat at any sign of danger but Hux made the call for all gunners to aim for them, allowing there to be no survivors. 

Another speeder exploded, hit by fire from one of the walkers. Poe saw Nien Nunb slide his own speeder over to fill the hole in the formation and admired the cool efficiency of the old rebel veteran’s maneuver. But it wasn’t enough to change the outcome, Poe realized. Nothing could do that now. They’d failed. 

Two more ski speeders exploded into flames. 

“They’re picking us all off. We’re not gonna make it.” 

“Alright, making my final approach.” Finn tells him over the comm. “Target in sight, guns are hot.”

“No! Pull off.” Poe shakes his head.

The cannon was just a couple hundred meters away, but Poe refused to let himself be tempted. His speeder would be cooked before he got close enough for it to matter. 

“What?” He could hear the disbelief in Finn’s voice. 

“The cannon is charged! It’s a suicide run! All craft, pull away!” 

“No! I’m almost there!” 

“Retreat, Finn! That’s an order!” 

Poe pulls away, three ski speeders following his head but Finn’s continued to race toward the cannon. 

“Finn? It’s too late! Don’t do this!” Rose yells. 

“No!” Finn shouts back, his voice wild. “I won’t let them win!” 

“Finn, listen to Poe. We have to retreat!” 

He paws the headset off, flinging it aside. He was just fifty meters from the cannon, seeking to fly straight down the barrel and watched as his speeder was already scorching and melting from the intense heat. Ahead of him the air itself was burning, ignited by the terrifying heat of the cannon’s tracer beam. Finn lifts up the mono-ski, raising higher into the air and getting closer to the core. His eyes filled with tears but he was determined, already accepting his fate and allowing himself to close his eyes for impact. 

His eyes then shoot open, sensing something and turns to see Rose’s ski speeder aiming directly for him. Finn covers his face with his arms, the hit sending Finn’s speeder tumbling out of the cannon’s path while Rose’s slewed wildly, its outrigger coming apart. The ground rushed up at her, a crimson and white whirl. 

Finn recovered, getting out of his speeder to see the plain around him was a chaotic jumble of salt chunks and red dirt. His eyes then spot Rose lying slumped in her twisted cockpit, or at least what was left of it. 

He forces himself out of his own speeder, rushing to her. “Rose?” 

She forced her eyes open, seeing his face close to hers and a maelstrom of smoke rising into the air from behind him as he took off her headset. 

“Why would you do that? Huh? I was almost there.” He undoes her belt, making sure she was okay before grabbing her shoulders gently. “Why did you stop me?” 

“I saved you, dummy.” She tells him. “That’s how we’re gonna win. Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love.” 

The First Order cannon fired, a brilliant scientific sun. A massive bolt of energy crossed the plain between it and the shield door, igniting the air with a roar and sending a hot wind whipping across the salt flats. 

High above the battlefield, safe in the shelter of the command shuttle, Kylo watched impassively as the siege cannon went dark, its fires spent. The massive door protecting the remnants of the Resistance was riven by a fissure down its center, and huge chunks of stone fell from the edges of the wound. 

Beside Kylo, Hux surveyed the damage with a mixture of awe and pleasure. 

This was the future, the general thought. The Resistance deadenders and New Republic revanchists fleeing the First Order’s might until there was nowhere left to run, then cowering in holes on forgotten worlds. It would do them no good, they would be dug out by Hux’s machines and dragged out by his troops. It would be slow work but never tedious. Because he would enjoy every engagement, surrender, and execution. The galaxy had been hobbled by disease for far too long, but Hux has sterilized the infection. Now he would cut out the dead tissue. 

“General Hux, advance,” Kylo found himself saying, almost lifeless with the order. “No quarter. No prisoners.” 

Inside of the mine, the Resistance officers turned away from the enormous light and heat of the blast, keeping their faces averted until the shaking and the rumble of falling stone had subsided. Leia lowered her hands from her face and found sunlight streaming in through the breached door. It lent a strange beauty to the gloomy chamber within, as if the site had been transformed into a cathedral. 

Connix looked up from her console, where she’d been monitoring their transmissions. “Our distress signal has been received at multiple points, but no response.” 

D’Acy looked grave. “They’ve heard us, but no one’s coming.” 

Leia’s face fell. She gathered herself, reflexively reaching back into her memory for a hundred speeches she’d made during a hundred desperate battles, for words that would give these brave fighters the strength and courage they needed to keep on. But there was nothing. And she wasn’t going to peddle false hope to these men and women. They deserve better. 

“We fought to the end. But the galaxy has lost its hope,” she sits down. “The spark is out.” 

An awful silence hung over the mine. Then it was broken by slow, deliberate footsteps from a darkened tunnel in the back of the chamber. 

Luke Skywalker walked into the room, clad in black Jedi robes. His hands, one flesh and blood and the other mechanical, reached up for his hood and pushed it back. His dark beard was just beginning to grey and his eyes were a bright blue, studying each of the Resistance fighters in turn. 

Leia watched her brother approach in disbelief. She was dreaming, and for a moment that made her angry. Here, at the end, her mind had broken and left her seeing things. But no, everyone else in the room was looking where she was looking, their expressions amazed. 

“Luke.” 

He crossed the room, standing in front of his sister as she stared up at him. 

“I know what you’re going to say,” she begins as he sits. “I changed my hair.” 

“It’s nice that way.” Luke replied, his smile fading. “Leia, I’m sorry.” 

“I know. I know you are. I’m just glad you’re here, at the end.” 

He’s silent for a second, or two. “I came to face him, Leia. And I can’t save him.” 

Not long ago, she knew, this would have pierced her to her core. But now there was nothing but a dull ache. 

“I know.” She says. “I held out hope for so long, but I know my son is gone.” 

Luke’s eyes were warm with understanding and love, but something else too. It was knowledge, she sensed. A knowledge that was vast, deep, and strange, but also comforting. It had changed him, remade him utterly, yet the Luke of her youth remained at the heart of whatever he had become. 

“No one’s ever really gone.” He said quietly, taking her hand in his.

When they touched, she immediately understood. A slight smile played at the corners of her mouth, and her eyes shone with the secret the two of them now shared. 

Then Luke let go of Leia’s hand, Han Solo’s dice from the Falcon, resting in her palm as he stood, kissing her forehead. 

“Master Luke.” C-3PO said with evident delight, winning a wink from his former master as he began walking with those same unhurried steps into the light pouring into the Resistance’s refuge, out through the shattered door, and onto the surrounding plain as all the fighters and even Poe watched. 

Hux saw the lone figure on the plain and peered down in a grin as the man walked, seemingly unconcerned, into the teeth of enough firepower to level a good sized city. Was the man blind, and about to be revealed as spectacularly unlucky? Amused, he glanced over at Ren and whatever he had been going to say died on his lips. Because the new Supreme Leader looked like he was staring down at a ghost. 

“Stop!” Kylo demands. 

His order was swiftly relayed, and the mighty line of First Order walkers came to an obedient halt. They were barely four hundred meters from the shattered door and the Resistance soldiers huddled within. 

The man stopped. He looked up, into the sky, and suddenly the hair on the back of Hux’s neck rose. Somehow he knew that the man down there on the scarred landscape was looking straight at them, his gaze fixed unerringly not just on the shuttle but on one person inside.

“I want every gun we have to fire on that man.” Kylo orders. 

Hux looked at Ren’s face and saw naked and undisguised terror. 

“Do it.” 

The first walker to receive the order opened fire, its chin guns shooting in succession. As flames engulfed the lone man on the battlefield, the other walkers began to fire. 

As the Falcon raced back toward the battlefield, Rey hurried up the ladder from the gun turret and joined Elektra and Chewie in the cockpit. Dread knotted her stomach as she saw the massive crack in the shield door and the lines of First Order war machines so close to it. Elektra, on the other hand, was focusing on the walkers’ guns and how they were firing at once on a precise point. 

“Uncle Luke,” she mutters, knowing that it was him who was buying the Resistance time. 

_You think, what? I’m gonna walk out with a laser sword and face down the whole First Order?_ He once asked Rey and Elektra when they arrived at his island of Ahch-To, trying to get him to join them in the fight. 

Alas, that was exactly what he was doing. He was taking them on and Elektra found herself smirking from ear to ear. “Our family has done far more crazier things.” She announces to herself, and sees Chewie and Rey exchanging bewildered glances. 

She turns the Falcon around, heading about the back. 

There was no sign of the man who’d begun his walk across the ruined plain, just a massive pillar of roiling fire and smoke, a conflagration renewed by the energy poured into it amid the continuous thunder of the First Order gun.

In the command shuttle, Kylo Ren stared at the tumult of fire below, clenching his fists and there were tears in his eyes. This had been the man who had turned his own sister against him, and it left him upset to the point that he wanted Luke Skywalker to pay. Surely, Elektra would have taken his hand if it hadn’t been for Luke corrupting her. 

“More!” He yelled. 

The firing continued, the fusillade of energy tinting the white salt around the blast point orange and red. 

“More!” He howls. 

Hux steps up behind him, whispering, “That’s enough.” 

Kylo was breathing heavily, his face flashing red as his eyes kept locked on where Luke was. He said nothing.

Hux then steps forwards. “That’s enough!” He shouts. 

The First Order commanders looked at one another for a moment, then Hux’s order was obeyed, the firing stopped. 

Kylo collapses back into his chair, trying to catch his breath and focuses on the floor at his feet. He found himself unable to eye the aftermath of the destruction. Was it gulit? Was it because he knew Elektra would hate him for ordering a fire on their Uncle? He wasn’t quite sure. 

“Do you think you got him?” Hux asked acidly, not bothering to hide his scorn as the column of smoke and flame continued to whirl and churn. “Now, if we’re ready to get moving, we can finish this.”

“Sir . . .” The shuttle’s commander said tentatively. 

Besides him, Kylo raised his eyes almost unwillingly. As if what was happening below them wouldn’t become real if he didn’t look. But that only worked in ancient myths, the kind of stories told to entertain children. 

He stood from his chair, stepping forwards and witnessed Luke Skywalker stepping out of the fiery column, his robes not so much as singed, his gaze still locked on the shuttle. He brushed invisible dust from his shoulders, his face radiating contempt. 

Kylo exhaled shakily, knowing that he’d have to face him personally. 

“Bring me down to him.” He ordered the pilot. “Keep the door covered dnd don’t advance our forces until I say.” 

“Supreme Leader, don’t be distracted, our goal is to—”

Kylo harnessed the Force, used it to seize Hux, and hurled him into the wall of the command shuttle’s cabin. Hard enough to shut him up. 

“Right away, sir.” The shuttle commander said. 

Finn had entered the mine with Rose in his arms, yelling for a medpac. Resistance fights hurried over and took her gently from him, moving her to a hovering gurney that had been brought up for the battle. Finn watched the soldier bear her away, head hanging from exhaustion. Around them, the crystal fur of the foxes tinkled in the gloom. 

He turns, staring out through the great crack in the door, where the one man with a laser sword had gone to face down the entire First Order. Between the arrival of the Millennium Falcon and what he’d learn of Elektra and Rey’s mission, he’d realized who that man was. A legend come to life, when the Resistance needed one the most. 

“What that . . .” He trailed off, asking Poe. 

“Yeah.” 

Poe knew Luke Skywalker wasn’t a figure out of myth, but a real man. His own mother, Shara Bey, had escorted his shuttle away from the second Death Star and accompanied him on a mission after its destruction. 

But then Poe had grown up on Yavin 4, playing in the shade of an uneti tree his mother had been given by Skywalker himself, and which he’d told her was a seedling of one that had grown at Coruscant’s Jedi Temple. And Poe had honed his flight skills in Yavin’s debris ring, dodging chunks of scorch and twisted Death Star plating passed over by scavengers. 

Still, Skywalker had all but vanished by the time Poe was an adolescent, pursuing ancient Jedi secrets amid strange stars. What was happening on the plains of Crait, Poe sensed, belonged to a vanished era of the galaxy. It might never be witnessed again. 

The command shuttle descended, engines grumbling as its huge wings folded upward. It sat silently in front of Luke for a moment, like a massive black raptor studying him. Then, with a hiss of hydraulics, the ramp lowered and Kylo Ren stepped out into the cracked chaos of the salt flats. 

Luke had registered nothing beyond his nephew’s presence when he’d found him with Elektra, back on Ahch-To. Now he blazed in Luke’s sense of Force, almost radiant with power. It was the kind of power Luke had forseen in him, first as a near infinite promise, then later as an equivalent peril. 

That power was fed by emotions so strong, they seemed almost to pollute the Force around Kylo. Rage poured out of him, and a near malignant cruelty; a lust to deform and destroy everything around him, to blot it out and erase it. But those emotions weren’t the most powerful ones Luke sensed in his nephew. Even stronger than the anger were Kylo’s pain and fear. They filled him, threatening to devour him. 

Ben Solo had sought to abandon everything he had been, even casting aside his name. But Luke sensed that Kylo Ren was just a shell around the same broken boy he tried so hard to reach. 

Once, Luke had thought he would be the one who might mend what was broken in Kylo. Later, he had blamed himself for the damage. 

Both thoughts had been vanity, he realized now. Whatever had broken in Kylo, it was far beyond Luke’s ability to fix.

Kylo had been studying Luke as well. Now he spoke, his voice thick with venom. 

“Did you come back to say you forgive me? To save my soul?” 

“No.” 

When he realized that was Luke’s only answer, Kylo threw off his cape and snatched his lightsaber from his belt. The crimson blade crackled and growled, flakes of salt hitting it and flowering into sparks. 

Luke’s hand went slowly and deliberately to his lightsaber, a shaft of blue emerging from the hilt. Kylo then took his fighting stance, both hands on the hilt and pointing his blade outwards; the exact same stance that Elektra had displayed during her training. 

Poe watched the confrontation through his quadnocs. The sun was sinking toward the horizon, stretching Kylo’s and Luke’s shadows across the plain. 

“Kylo Ren,” Poe told Finn. “Luke’s facing him alone.” 

“We should help him. Let’s go.” 

Poe wanted to smile as he placed his hand on Finn’s chest to stop him from running out there. Was this the same Finn who’d insisted he wasn’t here to join another army? And not so long ago, he would have reacted the same way, looking for anything he could fly and blasting off across the plains. But he’d learned there were other ways to fight and that those who chose them were no less brave. 

“This isn’t just a family reunion,” Poe informs them as he studied the two figures. “Skywalker’s doing this for a reason. He’s stalling him so we can escape.” 

“Escape?” Finn questions, incredulous. “He’s one man against an army. We have to help him, we have to fight.” 

“No, no. We are the spark that’ll light the fire that’ll burn the First Order down.” He then eyes Finn. “Skywalker is doing this so we can survive. There had to be another way out of the mine. Hell, how’d he get in here?” 

“Sir, it is possible that a natural, unmapped opening exists.” C-3PO says. “But this facility is such a maze of endless tunnels that the odds of finding an exit are fifteen thousand four hundred twenty-eight—”

As he delivered this grim news, Poe’s posture and facial expression changed. 

“Shh. Shh. Shut up!” 

“—to one.” C-3PO concluded, feeling it would be irresponsible to leave so important a calculation incomplete. 

“Listen.” 

“My audio sensors no longer detect—”

“Exactly.” Poe said, stepping a few paces away from the group, staring into the dark tunnels leading away from the main chamber. It was quiet, eerily silent. 

Finn’s eyes widened in realization. “Where’d the crystal critters go?” 

A lone vulptex stood in the one cave, its eyes shining in the darkness as it whimpered and turned tail, hurrying off down the tunnel as its fur chimes. 

Poe faces the group. “Follow me.”

All eyes turned to Leia, who turned to see what they were staring at behind her. Once she realized that they were waiting for _her_ order, she faced forwards.

“What are you looking at me for? Follow him.” 

The ridgeline above the mine had been reshaped over the millennia by salt glaciers, grinding away at the mountains to leave behind a cracked landscape of crags and knobs separated by deep fissures. The Falcon flew slowly over the ridge; inside, R2-D2 had plugged into a dataport in the cockpit so he could access the freighter’s sensors. 

The astromech whined unhappily. 

“The beacon’s right beneath us.” Elektra pilots, glancing over her shoulder at the blue and white droid. “They have to be here. Just keep scanning for all and any lifeforms.” 

The droid beeped an acknowledgement and urged the freighter to switch its sensors over to focus mode, probing the rock beneath them for matches with human energy signatures. 

The Falcon responded sulkily, then launched into a diatribe about its inadequate sensor rectennate, power feeds to the dish that remained misaligned more than three decades after the incident that had knocked them out of place, and Chewbacca’s obviously deliberate refusal to prioritize repairs the way the freighter thought made sense. 

“Elektra, the beacon.” Rey points to the shining emitter around her wrist. 

R2-D2 then squeaks, agreeing with the idea for the beacon to be hooked up to the dataport so the Falcon could perform a burst scan spatially centered on the mate of the beacon. After a show of reluctance, the ship complied. 

The astromech beeps to get the girls’ attentions, the scan had turned up massive life readings. 

Rey peered down at the mountainside, trying to match up what R2-D2 had found with what she was seeing. 

“Elektra!” She says, pointing. “There!” 

Below them, dozens of crystal foxes were streaming out of a fissure in the mountainside. 

The Resistance fighters followed the fox through the warren of tunnels. Poe was worried they’d frighten the creature into hiding, but it seemed to understand that they needed to follow it, going so far as to linger when they struggled to keep pace. Rose was toward the back of the group, unconscious thanks to a cocktail of sedatives and pain medication, Connix trotting along anxiously next to her gurney with C-3PO and BB-8. 

The group had emerged from a narrow tunnel into a natural cave glittering with crystal outcroppings. The crystal fox stood atop a large boulder, eyes bright in the gloom. It studied them for a moment, then hopped down from its perch, loping over to a rockfall that filled the back of the cavern. There, it somehow squeezed itself into a crack less than a third of a meter wide, its fur jingling and tinkling against the stone. 

“No, no. No.” Poe rushes up, peering into the narrow exit. He could see the light, but there was no way any of them could squeeze into the space. “No!” 

Elektra and Rey hurried down the Falcon’s ramp and scrambled down a scree of crystal shards and salt chunks into a crevasse. A fox ran past her, its fur chiming and singing, and leapt from outcropping to outcropping to reach the top of the ridge. 

Searching for where the animal had come from, they found a small crack in a massive wall of tightly packed boulders. 

Elektra stepped back to study the tumbled landscape and shook her head in disbelief before turning to Rey. “Lifting rocks.” 

Kylo and Luke regarded each other, their lightsabers humming between them. Each methodically adjusted his stance, eyes locked on the other. Around them drifted flakes of salt, light as ash. Kylo takes off in a charge, reverse gripping his lightsaber with his right hand, bringing it up and down across his body, in an arch as Luke ducked down effortlessly. The fire spitting blade swinging to the left of him as he throws his arm outwards, his body twisting as the blade swings wildly before him.

Luke was in front of him, adjusting his steps and Kylo twirls his lightsaber forwards, charging once again and joins in his left hand to hold the hilt, violently swinging low at Luke’s torso but Luke bent himself backwards. The blade inches away from his face so he avoids it and flies out from under with a spin as Kylo, himself, spins and strikes where his uncle previously was. Luke kneels in his stance, slowly extending his legs from under him and Kylo just huffed, visibly annoyed. 

It reminded Luke of Elektra when he saw her with his father’s lightsaber, wielding the lightsaber and practicing a fight sequence with the rock outcropping. She was mimicking Kylo’s fighting style, he had once thought but now, looking back, she was predicting his movements for this very showdown. She was parrying, wheeling and weaving, and Kylo was doing the same. Identical tactics, approaches, stances, and even the same detail in expressions. Even emotion. 

Kylo wasn’t trying to fight Luke out of hate, it was out of discipline. 

“I failed you, Ben.” Luke tells him. “I’m sorry.” 

“I’m sure you are!” Kylo replies. “The Resistance is dead. The war is over. And when I kill you, I will have killed the last Jedi.” 

He waited to see what his former Master would say, bracing to defend against a lightning fast strike. But Luke simply raised an eyebrow. 

“Amazing. Every word of what you just said was wrong. The Rebellion is reborn today.” 

It began with a quaver, and the slightest trickle of dust and bits of rock. Poe and Leia watched as the rockfall that sealed them inside the mine began moving, one by one and then, several at a time as light began pouring in the dark. 

“The war is just beginning.” 

Finn’s eyes went wide, the light getting brighter as boulder after boulder rose into the air, revealing a tunnel. Him gazing back to Poe, Leia, and the other Resistance soldiers before hurrying up the passage. 

“And I will not be the last Jedi.” 

Elektra had opened her eyes, standing at the mouth and seeing the boulders floating in the air around her. She was amazed by her ability, taking in sight and she wasn’t the only one. 

Finn emerged with Poe and other Resistance soldiers, seeing Elektra with her hand held out and levitating the rocks that had blocked their exit. Poe grinned and Finn was so relieved to see that his friend was alive. His eyes then spotted Rey who stood behind Elektra, smiling in delight. 

Elektra sees Poe, her mother, and Finn, her eyes watering as she drops her hand, the boulders crashing to the ground. Finn rushed forward, he was afraid that Rose had been right—that this Elektra who could lift mountainsides would be utterly changed in other ways, too, with no trace left of the young woman who had been his friend since the First Order. 

And she _was_ different. But the old Elektra wasn’t gone. And it was that Elektra who fell into Finn’s arms, sobbing and laughing at the same time, and held him tight. 

Luke sensed Elektra, he felt what she had done. How she finally came to terms of accepting and taking on the path of being a Jedi, it brought his eyes to a gloss, grateful for the time that he had had with her even if it was mostly of him ignoring her and being afraid of her touching the dark side of the Force. 

Kylo felt it, too, and he gulped; his nervousness and hurt taking over. “You turned her against me.” 

“No. You did.” 

Kylo clenches his jaw, his breathing heavy. “I’ll destroy you, and all of it.” 

Luke searches Kylo’s eyes, finding his weakness and turns off his lightsaber. His face was calm, accepting. “Strike me down in anger and I’ll always be with you. Just like your father.” 

Clenching his lightsaber tighter, Kylo felt himself getting angry because Luke was right. Killing Han plagued his dreams ever since Starkiller Base, and the recurring images never left him. Surely killing Luke would just add onto that, giving him more anguish to remember and think back on. But more importantly, it’d just give Elektra another reason to not trust him, to hate him. 

_You know what you did._ Elektra told him that when he tried to offer her his hand. She hadn’t forgotten and neither did he, it was torturous for the both of the twins. 

Perhaps Luke was right. Maybe he did make his sister turn on him by what he had all done, and there was no forgiveness in it. Or . . . It was a _lie_. Maybe Luke giving him self-doubt was his goal all along; to make him believe that his actions are what sent everything into motion and that’s why Elektra no longer wanted to be with him. 

His blood boiled, his selfishness taking over in a rage and Kylo takes off as fast as he could towards his defenseless uncle. He holds the hilt with both hands, screaming and swinging at Luke’s abdomen, slicing through and sliding to a stop; leaving red streaks on the crust. 

Kylo calms himself down, breathing hard and slowly turns to see Luke untouched and staring at him. He stands straight, holding out his lightsaber and softly takes steps up to Luke, his blade going straight through his chest. 

He wasn’t there, not really. He was pulling the trick that he thought Elektra had done the first time they’d bonded through the Force. Luke was projecting himself, pouring all of his strength, his very essence, into the Force. 

“No.” 

Kylo removes his blade from Luke who smiled at his nephew sadly. 

“See you around, kid.” He says. 

And then he disappeared, leaving Kylo alone on the shattered plain, flakes of salt falling around him like snow. He knew what had followed next for his uncle. 

On Ahch-To, Luke was floating feet above the stone that overlooks the sea and had opened his eyes. He fell down on the ledge, laying on his back as his breathing ragged with exhaustion. His face was covered in sweat and tears while the twin suns had touched the horizon and were sinking into the ocean. 

He gets himself up, struggling but then stops as he listens in to the wail of the wind, the cries of the birds, and the rhythmic thumping of his heart in his chest. He takes in the sight of the twin suns, feeling the ripples of the Force that coursed through and around the island. He sits back on the ledge, still eyeing the horizon, bathed in an orange glow, and allows himself to smile as a voice called to him. 

_Let go, Luke._

He did and his body faded away, leaving the ledge empty. In the spot where he had been, the Force rippled and shivered. But a moment later this disturbance was lost amid countless other currents of an autumn evening on the island, and the Force continued as it always had, luminous and vast and eternal. 

Elektra stands still at the Millennium Falcon’s ramp while weary Resistance soldiers hurry up, her head turning to look out at nothing. She felt Luke’s death and she softly frowned, dropping her gaze down to her feet and urging the rest of the soldiers to come aboard.

Kylo walks through the rent in the massive stone door, Stormtroopers hurrying behind him with their rifles ready, hunting for enemies. But there was no one to meet them, just empty transports and a jumble of discarded equipment. He swept into the control center, seeing it deserted. He stalked around, seeing something on the floor and he knelt; his gloved fingers closing on a pair of golden dice linked by a short chain. 

As Kylo stared at them he sensed something else—a tremor in the Force, the prelude to a familiar connection. 

He stared at Elektra’s back, seeing her soft and sensing him. She turns, staring back at him, her gaze level and unafraid. She had removed the First Order insignia from her forehead, and Kylo felt misery. 

“I didn’t want it like this.” There was no hatred in her voice nor in her eyes, it was just compassion and sorrow. 

Kylo knew what was about to happen and yet, he believed that if he kept his eyes on her that it wouldn’t. That, somehow, he could will it to stop with the Force but that was just wishful thinking on his part. 

“I’m sorry.” 

Elektra then severed the connection as she pressed the button to shut the door of the Falcon, the noise of its closing echoed through the room with a powerful boom which caused Kylo to shiver. She vanished from his sight, leaving him alone with their father’s dice resting in the palm of his upraised hand. 

Tenderly, Kylo peers down at the dice, thinking about how Luke was right. His actions did cause Elektra to turn away from him, to follow the path that was meant for the both of them when they were born. 

Him and her were meant to be a dynamic duo of strong and raw power, both fighting for the light side of the Force until their parents pushed them aside to deal with their own duties, until Snoke made his way into Ben’s head—until Luke had a moment where he wanted to strike true and end what the boy was about to become. Kylo Ren. 

Kylo came from Elektra and he admired the name, never quite understanding how his sister came up with it but with a guess, he just assumed that it was their parent’s last names merged into one. It was better than being named after Obi-Wan Kenobi, he thought at the time. 

Ren came from the Knights of Ren who followed a lightsaber called the Ren. Its meaning was that it doesn’t stop to worry about what it’s burning or the right or wrong of it, or the goals it might achieve. It just is. It lives, and it consumes, and it doesn’t apologize for its nature and nothing else. He felt a connection with it, dawning the name and began his training of the dark side while Elektra stood back, allowing it to happen. 

Did she believe that she was the one to blame for his descent into the dark? Was that why she was so desperate to have him back? Why’d she apologize before leaving him? He knew the answer, and it was yes. He was heading down a path that she couldn’t follow because the more he did, the more she lost her hope up until they touched hands. 

Elektra told him that she saw him turning back to the light, and that she’d be the one to help him. But the Force could’ve easily shown her what she wanted to see, what she wanted to believe, because what he had seen was different. He saw Elektra at his side, her turning to the dark, accepting it just like how he had. And maybe that was just the Force showing him what he desired most of all. 

Kylo made sense of it now, and there was no more confusion since he’d woke up in the throne room. He was alone and he had been selfish which pushed Elektra to joining the Resistance and continuing her journey of being a Jedi. It hadn’t been Luke who corrupted her, it was all him.

The dice in his hand began fading, vanishing away and he balled his hand into a fist while he lowered his head down to the ground, closing his eyes as he felt hot liquid in his eyes. 

The Falcon was flying in hyperspace and Leia watched the chubby, big-eyed avians. A few were nesting in tangles of wiring, peering out of access hatches, and even squawking in territorial pique at the Resistance soldiers who dared to sit around the gaming table. 

Chewbacca sat in the copilot’s seat, his hairy hands drifting over the controls with a grace that belied his size. 

Leia’s steps carried her to just behind the chair, but no farther. She stopped with her hand on the seat’s back. 

“Chewie . . .” She says, then stops, needing a moment to control her emotions. “Luke . . . gave his life for us. To buy us time. To save us.” 

Chewie’s hand slowed on the controls, then stopped. The Wookie whined, a small sound almost lost deep in his throat. His hands fell into his lap and he slumped in his seat as Leia’s hand settled on his shoulder. 

“It’s just us now.” She tells him. “But we’ll find a way.” 

She realized tears were pooling at the corners of her eyes and tried to stop them, irritated with herself. But it was no use. She stood, silent and still, as twin lines of tears ran down her cheeks.

Chewie looks up at her, his blue eyes bright. He saw her face and rose from his seat, towering over her. She tried to tell him she was alright but the words wouldn’t come. He reached for her and folded her against his chest. 

Leia buried her face in the Wookie’s warm fur, clinging to him, and finally allowed herself to weep, to surrender to the grief that had filled her to overflowing. She wept for Luke, and for Han, and for Ben. For all those they had lost. 

The hold was crowded with Resistance fighters and pilots. C-3PO was telling R2-D2 about the many indignities he’d endured since they separated on D’Qar, while BB-8 listened and clucked sympathetically. Poe and Finn were talking to Rey before Finn excused himself to check on Rose who was being covered with a blanket by Connix. 

Elektra sat over by herself, watching Rey smile as Poe made her laugh over something and she felt herself give a small smile before she took a gander down at her hands that held the two broken halves of Anakin’s and Luke’s lightsaber. 

Leia had entered the hold with Chewie, her seeing her daughter and sitting down next to her, spotting the sundered lightsaber. 

“Uncle Luke’s gone.” Elektra whispers. “I felt it. But it wasn’t sadness or pain. It was peace and purpose.” 

“I felt it, too.” Leia nods. 

Her brother had passed into the Force. As she would one day. As they all would. But the Force remained. It was everywhere around them, connecting them and lifting them up. And wherever the Force was, some part of Luke was, too.

Elektra looks from the broken halves of the lightsaber to the handful of injured, exhausted Resistance fighters. 

“How do we build a rebellion from this?” 

Leia just placed her hand on her daughter’s and smiled. 

“We have everything we need.” 

It was the day of Snoke’s funeral and Kylo had watched as his body burned, taking in a deep breath and watched as the one who raised him in the dark and plagued his head with taunts was dead and no longer alive. 

Hux stood next to him, giving a speech to the First Order fighters and Stormtroopers. He went on and on about how Kylo was the new Supreme Leader and how Snoke’s death would not be in vain. 

The fire was diminishing and Snoke’s body had been reduced to ash. 

Everyone had left to do their jobs while Kylo just kept his eyes on the glowing embers, his thoughts fixed on his sister and what she had been doing for the past three days. Since she left, he had felt nothing from her and he assumed that maybe it was Snoke was dead that their minds weren’t bridged but he knew that that wasn’t the case. They were twins after all, their bond was stronger than anything than what a simple minded Supreme Leader like Snoke could create. 

His only conclusion was that she was purposely shutting him out so he couldn’t find the Resistance’s newest location and bring the First Order to come and destroy them. It made sense and he didn’t hold it against her, it was the very least what he deserved after everything. 

**_Huehahahaha_ **

Kylo lifts his head, hearing a dark, maniacal laugh from within his head and darts over his shoulder. He knew that laugh and it sent a chill down his spine. 

It belonged to Chancellor Palpatine. 


	13. Transmission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dead speak! The galaxy had heard a mysterious broadcast, a threat of revenge in the sinister voice of the late Emperor Palpatine.
> 
> General Leia Organa dispatches secret agents to gather intelligence, while Elektra, the last hope of the Jedi, trains for battle against the diabolical First Order. 
> 
> Meanwhile, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren is desperate in search of the phantom Emperor, determined to destroy any threat to his sister . . .

General Armitage Hux watched from a safe distance as Supreme Leader Kylo Ren and a squad of Stormtroopers cut a swath of blood and destruction through the pathetic Mustafarian colonists who were called the Alazmec. They battled through the gloomy woods of Corvax Fen, one of the few patches on this hellscape of a lava planet that was cool enough to support native growth. Barren trees grew out of a noxious marsh, and the air was hazy with mist. 

Ren was a blunt instrument, a mindless dog, whose current obsession was putting all the First Order’s plans behind schedule. The general was half tempted to wade into the fight himself to hurry things along just so they could leave this awful planet. Or at least he would be half tempted if his skills were not better used elsewhere. Best if Ren did all the dirty work; Hux was too valuable to risk. 

“He’s almost beautiful to watch,” Allegiant General Pryde mused, standing tall besides him. The older man had arrogant blue eyes and a high hairline that seemed immune to perspiration, even in a hell climate like this. “Don’t you think?” 

Hux refused to gratify that with a response, because true beauty came from discipline, from _order_. So it was almost against his will that he found himself mesmerized as Ren met a barbarian’s charge head on, cloak flowing, mist swirling around him. The glow of his lightsaber occasionally snagged on his cheek scar, making it appear as though a crack of glowing lava slashed his face. It was like something out of a dream, or maybe a nightmare, as the Supreme Leader plunged his fiery crossguard into his attacker’s abdomen, lifted him from the ground, and sent him toppling onto his back. Kylo Ren did not spare his fallen foe a single glance, simply rushed forward into the woods seeking his next kill. 

He throws up his lightsaber, grabbing it in a reverse grip and twirls his body backwards, stabbing it back into another barbarian, sensing another incoming attack from his left. Keeping his position, he throws out his left hand, calling on the Force to bring the being forwards as he drops his scatterblaster. Kylo adjusts, spinning and withdrawing his lightsaber, slashing at the chest and going after the last remaining colonist, grabbing his arm, holding it above his head as he sliced through with his lightsaber. 

Corpses of the cultists littered the ground, barely more than lumps of shadow in the gloom. The air smelled of ozone and scorched vegetation. All was eerily silent as Ren looked around, catching his breath. The mysterious object he had come for, dragged all of them across the galaxy for was nearly within his grasp. 

Mustafar was teeming with life—all connected through the Force. Like those hapless cultists he’d just killed, who’d come to the planet and seeked to tap into the powers that supposedly fueled Vader. Like the forest of twisted irontrees they endeavored to cultivate. Or even the extremophile organisms that swarmed the lava flows. All fragile but determined, mutilated but indomitable. 

It was no wonder his grandfather had chosen this place for a home. 

Kylo strode through the trees, lightsaber still ignited. Malevolence lay ahead, along with a darkness that had nothing to do with the planet’s day-night cycle. 

By a silent mutual agreement, the Stormtroopers who’d accompanied him had declined to follow him through the woods, which suited him fine. He preferred to be alone for this. 

A few more steps and the ground became soggy. The mist thickened. A small splash indicated that his presence had been noticed. Finally, the trees broke open onto a small lake with brackish water, boarded on all sides by forest and large black lumps like boulders, jutting out of the ground at odd angles. No, not boulders, he noted upon closer look, but rather fallen remnants of Darth Vader’s castle. 

An oily film slicked across the lake’s still surface. But as Kylo approached, the water bubbled up in the center, sending tiny waves to lap at his boots. 

A giant emerged, a hairless creature sheening with wetness, bits of lake detritus clinging to its pasty skin. Its eyes were squeezed shut, bit it could still see after a fashion, because draped over its massive bald head and across one shoulder was a second creature with long spidery tentacles. The two were locked in a symbiosis. Kylo sensed the giant’s pain, as though it were a slave to the spidery being that clung to it. Yet neither could survive alone. 

It reminded him of Elektra. She was the head and he had been the spider. 

“I am the Eye of Webbish Bog. I know what you seek.” The spider creature spoke. 

“You will give it to me.” Kylo said. 

The Eye cocked its head, making an eerie squealing noise. It took a moment for Kylo to realize the creature was laughing at him. “No need for that,” the Eye said. “Do you really think my lord would have left it in the guardianship of one who could be swayed by a trick of the Force?” 

No, he supposed not. 

“You’ve been seeking it for a while, yes? I must warn you, our fiery planet burns away deception. If you proceed down this path, you will encounter your true self. And _hers_.”

Kylo turns his head, studying the creature to wonder if it had been telling the truth. 

“In accordance with Lord Vader’s wishes, you have defeated my protectors and earned it. His wayfinder.” 

The blind giant beneath the Eye raised its enormous hand from the water and pointed toward a small island in the lake. On it was a stone structure, like an altar. 

Kylo turned off his lightsaber and hooked it to his belt. He waded into the shallow lake, soaking his hoots and cloak. The water was warm, and the ground beneath the water a sludge that sucked at his feet. He ignored it all, blowing dust and shoving off the stone cover, reaching for a pyramidal object. It fit satisfyingly in his hand, heavy and hot, and he stared at it a moment, lost in its glow. The sides were etched glass frames in deep grey resin. The crimson light within seemed to pulse faintly. Kylo had come a long way for this, and yet he hesitated, eyeing the pyramid with distrust. 

He remembered the laugh that he heard from Snoke’s funeral and the transmission that came in two weeks ago: _At last the work of generations is complete. The great error is corrected. The day of victory is at hand. The day of revenge. The day of the Sith._

He wasn’t sure what to believe about it, but it was a fair guess that Kylo wasn’t the only one seeking answers. Others would follow the same path and come to Mustafar sooner or later, looking for this exact object. So surely his grandfather would have made it harder than this? Those cultists were too easy to kill. This creature too easy to convince. Then again, he was Vader’s blood. The object belonged to him. 

Now that he had it up close, the etchings in the glass classified into patterns. Star charts. Alignment markers. Something stirred deep within him, suggesting ancient knowledge and power, and he felt a rush of triumph. It had all been worth it—diverting ships, sending out spies, tracing old records, enduring the smug disapproval of Hux—all to find this. 

Kylo Ren wasted no more time. Dried blood made the skin of his face itch, and his boots and cloak were soggy with lake water, but instead of returning to his command ship, the Steadfast, he dismissed everyone back to their regular duties and jumped into his TIE whisper to make the next part of the journey alone. 

No one protested. 

He connected the pyramid to his navicomputer, attaching ports where indicated by the glass etchings. The nav interface lit up with new information, but also blared a warning. 

For these coordinates would take him beyond the Western Reaches into the Unknown Regions. Kylo overroad the warning and jumped his TIE to lightspeed. The stars turned to streams of matter. 

The Unknown Regions remained uncharted because a chaotic web of anomalies had created a near impenetrable barrier to exploration; only the most foolhardy or desperate ventured there—criminals, refugees, and if the reports were true, remnants of the old Imperial fleet who had refused to accept New Republic rule. 

A few planets had been discovered, but their populations remained small, and their trade with the rest of the galaxy had been throttled by the navigational risk. The Sith and the Jedi had found paths through to even more dangerous, more hidden worlds—or so legends said—and the specific, carefully stepped coordinate jumps required to safely navigate the anomalies were among their most closely guarded secrets. 

The trip would be worth the risk. Someone was out there, claiming to be the Emperor himself, and Kylo needed answers. 

The TIE bumped out of lightspeed into rough space; it felt as though he were flying through gravel. He had to have faith that Vader’s wayfinder would steer him true. That, and the Force. Kylo drew on all the determination and frustration of the last few days and gripped the controls in cold focus. Once his flight steadied, he sent his TIE to the next set of coordinates. 

This time, instead of the streaming stars of hyperspace, his ship entered a glowing red mesh of hexes. He’d heard tales of the Red Honeycomb Zone of exotic space that some had called the Blood Net, until now he hadn’t been sure he believed any of them. It was one of the only known safe passages through the anomalies of the Unknown Regions, but it seemed malevolent and angry, and the sensor indicators on his console flashes wildly, unsure what to make of it. 

It seemed as though only a short time had passed before his TIE lurched out of the red zone and slowed. Kylo was prepared to attack or evade, but found himself on a perfectly normal approach, the planet Exegol looming before him. It seemed dead and grey, shrouded in massive dar storm systems. As he neared, the clouds burst with jagged light.

Kylo Ren strode away from his TIE whisper, across boundless cracked ground. The planet’s entire surface was a landing pad, flat and empty. Reaching out with the Force, he could detect a moderate amount of life nearby, most of it deep below the surface, but this planet made Mustafar seem like a lush garden by comparison. The air was hazy and hot and dry, and lightning split the sky in unending rage.

The planet’s atmosphere didn’t afford much visibility, so he didn’t see the citadel until he was almost upon it; hovered over the barren ground, a brutal edifice of stone towering high enough that its peak was nearly lost in haze. He ignited his lightsaber. 

Kylo didn’t need to see the entrance to know where it was, because he could feel it beckoning him, welcoming him. It was not the soft, warm welcoming of home or safety but rather one of conquest and need. His skin prickled. The Force was strong here, but it was different. Twisted, rotten, as though filtered through a miasma of decay. 

He reminded himself that new things grew out of old decay. That death and decay feeds new life.

Lightning crackled in the gap between ground and edifice. The space was just high enough for him to stride comfortably. He felt the weight of the massive structure as he walked beneath, trusting it to not fall and crush him. 

His footsteps echoed, and the bare stone ceiling seemed reddish in the light of his blade. Something clanged, like a gigantic gear moving into place. Suddenly the area he stood upon separated itself from the floor, becoming a floating disk that lowered him into the depths of the citadel. 

As he descended, he found himself captivated by the wall before him, which was carved with colossal stone faces, all rendered in exquisite detail. Massive iron chains trailed down from the ceiling, as if mooring the statues in place. Something dark and inescapable moved within him, and he understood that he was viewing a monument. So much history and memory all in one place, and he was caught between reverence and rage. Monuments preserved the past, and if he had learned anything recently it was that the past needed to die. 

He once told Elektra that she needed to let it die, to kill it if needed because that’s how you move on to be who you truly are. But how could _she_ move on if her greatest fear was still around? 

The disk came to a gentle halt in a vast space that brought to mind a cathedral. The stone faces were high above him now, crowing enormous statues of ancient lords. At his feet, dark chasms jagged through the floor, and Kylo could not gauge their depths. The chasms crackled with lightning, searing his vision, as though a bit of the planet’s sky had been trapped within its crust. 

“Snoke trained you well.” A voice came, raspy and half mechanized, straining as though in pain, and yet the sound reverberated within his very being. 

Kylo knew that voice. He’d heard it his whole life. As a young man it had been like the wisp of a dream, one he couldn’t quite grasp. Then the Emperor’s transmission had flooded the galaxy, and Kylo had begun to dread that Palpatine had somehow survived, that his had been the whispering that had comforted, guided, _tormented_ him for so many tears. 

“I killed Snoke. I’ll kill you.” 

“My boy, I _made_ Snoke.” 

Kylo froze in place, he knew the voice hadn’t been lying to him and it made him deeply troubled. If Palpatine had made Snoke, then he knew something that Kylo didn’t want him to know. 

“I have been every voice,” he spoke slowly, deliberately, the timbre of his voice morphing into Snoke, “you have ever heard,” then Vader, “inside your mind.” 

A flash of lightning illuminated a huge glass tank and a few figures that wore black, threadbare robes, and bandaged that shrouded their faces. The figures moved oddly, as though with mechanical gait. If it wasn’t for the power emanating them, Kylo would not have been certain it was alive. The tank contained three creatures, all the same with wrinkled skin and oversized bald head and features caught in a state of everlasting anguish, as liquid life pumped into them through mechanical umbilicals. He then realized with a start that they were all of Snoke. 

“You know who I am?” 

Kylo’s grip on his lightsaber tightened. “I know you built the First Order. That I will not be your servant as Snoke was.”

“Snoke.” The voice filled with glee. “He was nothing but your _test_. You did well to destroy him after all he had done to you.”

“Who are _you_ to speak to _me_?”

“I am the one who led you here.” The voice deepened, shaking with barely restrained power. “The First Order was just the beginning. There’ll be so much more.” 

“You’ll die first.” 

“I have died before.” 

Kylo finally finds the source of the voice, turning to see his unspeakable frail body dangling from an enormous mechanism that disappeared into the darkness above. He had seen this before, while studying the Sith, and again while researching clues about Vader’s wayfinder. It was an Ommin harness, a mechanical spine once worn by an ancient Sith king. Without it, the emperor could not survive. 

“The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be . . . unnatural.” 

Kylo knew better than to allow himself to feel kinship with the creature, but there was no denying that she would consider him to be unnatural, as well. An abomination. A _monster_.

Lightning flashes, bringing clarity to the creature’s face. The Emperor’s eyes were filmed over with milking blindness, and vials punctured his neck as he began smirking, groggily laughing. 

“Just like how your sister is unnatural.”

In an instant, Kylo throws out his arm that holds his lightsaber, aiming it directly up and into his face to see all vials were empty of liquid save one, which was nearly depleted. He began breathing heavily, his eyes scowling at the man and his being with anger. Kylo had seen this apparatus before, too, when he studied the Clone Wars as a boy. The liquid flowing into the living nightmare before him was fighting a losing battle to sustain the Emperor’s putrid flesh. 

“You don’t _get_ to speak of her.” 

“Your actions have betrayed her trust in you.” Though blind, his eyes locked on Kylo’s. “She was wise to hide herself with the Massassi blood—from dead Siths—from you and Snoke. She’s always been in touch with the dark, never having to train in it, it was just there unlike you. And now, you’re afraid.” 

Kylo held his posture, barely not blinking, refusing to give him the satisfaction of how unnerved he was. “What do _you_ want?” He asks. Emperor Palpatine lived, after a fashion, and Kylo could feel in his very bones that this clone body sheltered the Emperor’s actual spirit. It was an imperfect vessel, though, unable to contain his immense power. It couldn’t last much longer. 

“Everything.” 

The creature raised his half rotted away hands, only a few covered with skin like melting candle wax, drawing on the Force and before Kylo could react, his surroundings disappeared as if into a fog, and a vision filled their place.

A black void, like space without stars. Then lightning flashed, revealing a cracked ground. The barren landscape shook, then shattered. A mountain erupted onto the surface. Dirt and chunks of soil fell away, revealing a metal hull, striped with red. Around it, more mountains broke the surface, resolving into massive Star Destroyers, half again the size of the Destroyers from the days of the Empire. A single, giant obelisk erupted also, a navigation tower that would coordinate their final ascension. It unfurled like a metal flower, exposing its petal antennae to the violent sky. More ships rose—and more and more—until tens of thousands hovered in the atmosphere. 

“For a generation, my disciples have labored,” Emperor Palpatine remarks, his voice dark and deep. 

Kylo’s heart was racing. So much power. A starfield of Destroyers. The largest feet of the galaxy had ever known. The rumors were _all_ true. Exegol was a world populated by the Sith Eternal, true believers in the dark side of the Force, devoting their lives to _this_. 

“They’ve built a fleet that will bring an end to the galactic rebellion once and for all.” 

With tremendous effort, Kylo thrust the vision aside. He knew what Palpatine was trying to do and he was no fool. 

“The might of the Final Order will soon be ready,” the Emperor continued, his voice uncannily compelling. “And it could be yours. If you do as I ask.”

There it was, what Kylo was waiting for. The baiting, and the price of it. 

“Bring the girl to me.” His breath became a mechanical wheeze, then stopped completely. “And you will rule all the galaxy as the new Emperor.” 

Kylo sensed deception in his words. “If I don’t?” 

“Then she will become a Jedi. The First Order will fall. And you will be all alone.” 

No deception this time; only truth. 

“You have already sensed this,” Palpatine adds. 

Kylo withdraws his lightsaber, turning it off and taking a step away from him. 

He had tried to make Elektra join his side once and it was his greatest failure that he could not convince her. He needed to keep his sister safe but how could he do that if she wasn’t with him? 

“That girl feels a stirring, and it’s festering. She is not who you believe she is.” 

His eyes narrowed. “What makes you think that you know any more than what I do about _my_ own sister?” 

The rotting remnant of Emperor Palpatine smiled. 

Elektra sat cross legged, eyes closed. She didn’t remember rising off the ground, but she was vaguely aware that somehow ended up floating. Pebbles and small boulders hovered around her, like a field of asteroids orbiting their sun. The Force flowed through her, buoyed her, connecting her to everything. The lush rain forest moon of Ajan Loss was teeming with life. She could feel every tree and fern, every reptile and insect. A few strides away in a hidden den, a small furry creature groomed its little of four kits. 

“Your connection becomes stronger every day.” Leia’s deep and soothing voice speaks. “Very good. Now reach out, if your mind is ready.”

Elektra inhaled through her nose and sent her awareness into the void. Peace and calm were key, her mother always said. She reached, she searched, she felt the breeze on her cheeks, smelled loamy soil that was damp from the recent rain. 

“Let me hear something, please. Let me hear something, please,” she murmured. But she heard . . . nothing, except wind in the trees and chirruping insects. 

“Bre?” 

She didn’t want to admit that she was failing, so instead she said, “Why did you stop training with Uncle Luke?” 

“Another life called to me.” 

Eyes still closed, Elektra asked, “How did you know?” 

“A feeling. Visions. Of serving the galaxy in different ways.” 

“But how did you know those visions were true?” Elektra pressed. 

“I knew.” She heard the smile in her mother’s voice. 

Elektra didn’t understand how her mother could be so sure. She had seen visions for herself and thought they’d be true but they weren’t, and she was curious. 

“I treasured each moment I spent with Luke,” Leia adds. “The things he taught me . . . I use them every day. Once you touch the Force, it’s part of you always. Over the years, I continued to learn, to grow.”

“Was Luke angry? When you quit?” She hoped her mother noticed that she could talk _and_ float at the same time now. That was progress, right?

Leia paused to consider. “He was disappointed. But he understood. I think he held out hope that I’d return to it someday. Like how you had.”

Elektra smiled at the small comment, refocusing and emptied her mind of worries, just as Leia had taught her. She cast out her awareness. Opened herself to anything the Force might want to tell her. Tentatively, she called for him: _Uncle Luke?_

Nothing, nothing, and more nothing. 

“I don’t hear anyone.” 

“Let go of all thought. Let go of fear. Reach out. Invite the Jedi of the past to be with you.”

And so, Elektra did as she sensed BB-8 traveling up and underneath her as she floated high in the sky, watching her with interest. 

“Be with me . . . Be with me . . . Be with me.” She waited all of a second, maybe two before she opened her eyes. “They’re not with me.” Elektra makes a noise of exasperation then flipped herself neatly to land on the ground as the rocks toppled around her. 

“Bre,” Leia said. The general could put so much into a single word: chastisement, acceptance, amusement, fondness. Maybe that’s why she’d become such a powerful leader. “Be patient.” 

“Well, I’m starting to believe it’s impossible. To hear the voices of the Jedi who came before.” Elektra informs, striding up towards her mother. Her eyes were bright and knowing like always, but recently Elektra had noticed her slowed movements, as though her bones ached. 

Still, Leia always managed to look neat and tidy, no matter how muddy their makeshift base got. Her hair was pulled back into a circlet of braids, and she wore a quilted vest over a brown tunic. Alderaanian jewelry always dangling from her earlobes, wrapped around her wrists and fingers. While Elektra just wore her father’s old brown leather suede jacket from his youth that she found in the Falcon, with a cream colored t-shirt that she tucked into her olive green cargo pants. Her belt and thigh holster attached to her right side, containing her blaster pistol, and wearing her black boots as she wore her hair in a half up and half down bun. 

“Nothing’s impossible.” Her mother’s face held a hint of a smile. 

“Nothing’s impossible.” She echos with a nod, trying to believe it. “I’m going to run the training course. That’s something I can do.” 

“You’re going to need this.” Elektra and Leia turn themselves to see Rey in her white multi layered garments, holding out a silver cylinder that Elektra automatically knew was the Skywalker lightsaber. 

Though Rey hadn’t been training to become a Jedi, she was learning about techniques in the Force and using the Force to connect with her quarterstaff during fighting. She even learned how to build a lightsaber with Elektra from the guidance of the books that Elektra had taken from Ahch-To’s Jedi Temple. And from that, she was given an idea and found the pieces of Luke’s lightsaber.

She reforged the lightsaber, repairing the kyber crystal, and binding it where it had broken in two with scavenged parts. Happily, Rey held it out to Elektra and watched as her friend’s eyes went wide, her hands taking it reverently. 

“You fixed it? For me?” Elektra’s thumbs ran over the section where it had been broken, now welded together and covered with a metal scrap and a small leather band for extra protection. 

Rey nods softly. “I knew how much it was important to you. Been in your family for a long time. Would’ve just been a shame to leave it broken.” 

Elektra steps forwards, giving Rey a tight hug and she hugs her back, resting her chin on her shoulder. “Thank you, Rey.” 

“You’re welcome.” A small laugh escapes Rey’s lips as she lets Elektra go, bobbing her head off in the direction of the training course. “Go and be amazing.” 

Elektra didn’t need a second more, she dashed into the jungle and BB-8 rolled after her. 

They both watched her sprint away; Leia feeling pride in training her daughter, but sometimes, it was misgiving. Elektra was both wonderful and exasperating as a student, getting frustrated with anything she didn’t pick up quickly, completely unaware of how fast she did pick things up. But she wasn’t one to judge, Leia had done the same to Luke. She knew Elektra could be a great leader someday, and she would be, if Leia had anything to do with it. There was no denying that she did have darkness within her, just like Ben. But she would not make the same mistakes she or Luke had with her son. She would not give into fear, give into the darkness rising within her daughter nor of her own questionable qualifications as a teacher. Most importantly, she would never send Elektra away again. 

With Rey, she had come to see the growth of Elektra over the year, from being with the First Order, only known as Elektra Ren to now, following her path of becoming a Jedi and finding who she once was. Bre Solo. They’ve gotten close—connected—and it’d been through learning such things from Luke’s books like Force jumps, Force pushes, and mind tricks. Majority of it was trial and error but it was fun and thrilling, the both of them learning and even had the help of Finn for a few. All the time spent with Elektra, Rey found herself being happier than she had been in her lonely years of Jakku, waiting for her family. Maz had been right about one thing; the longing that she seeked had been in front of her for a long time and she recognized it slowly and magnificently like the sun breaking into the horizon on an early morning. Rey just had hoped Elektra was looking towards the sunrise as well. 

Thick green foliage whipped past Elektra as she ran, she bounded over tangled ferns, dodged hanging veins as her thighs burned with effort. She stops, putting on her blast helmet, fighting a Marksman-H training remote blindly over a ravine while balanced on a tightrope made of vines, traversed a thin ridge high above the jungle canopy with Luke’s lightsaber. Once she’s done, she tears off the helmet, throwing it down on the soil and continues on, seeing the red flag high up in the tree. She jumps, grabbing onto a branch and cutting the flag down with the lightsaber, dropping down and catching it effortlessly. She deactivates the lightsaber, clipping it onto her belt.

Now the course had her doubling back, her leaping off a fallen tree and over the massive gorge that she had tightroped across, landing into a dive roll. BB-8 had waited, seeing her instantly getting back to her feet and sprinting. He warbles at her as he speeds, keeping up with her and Elektra hides a smile; her being impressed by how well his maneuverability made him the perfect training companion. 

Kylo had entered his chambers, opening the console that sealed away the ashy, ghostly deformed mask of Darth Vader that hissed with vapor. He stared down at it for a moment, slowly reaching out his hand to touch it and began reaching through the space, through the Force, to find Elektra. Their connection wasn’t gone but ever since Elektra shut the door on him, he hadn’t been able to find her and after Palpatine, he knew he had too before it’d be too late. 

He searched through, reaching out with his feelings, knowing that Vader’s mask would help pinpoint where she was and what she was doing. With such a personal object, especially tied into the lineage of their bloodline, it made that type of searching easier than anything. He felt tickle, not quite _something_ , but just a hint of what was there. Kylo closes his eyes, calling more power on the Force, hearing a chiming in his ear as he does so; focusing. 

The remote eluded Elektra, becoming faster and trickier. More droid than remote. BB-8 bleated a warning and the wicked red spherical remote had gone for her legs, tripping her as she fell straight onto her stomach. She gets up with a grunt, unhooking Luke’s lightsaber and activates it, bluish light glowing against the leaves around her as she stared the remote down. She was going to _destroy_ this thing. 

Suddenly a blast shot out from one of the ports. Stinging pain exploded in her upper arm, she turned with a grunt, resisting the urge to clutch her arm. Elektra goes into a full swing, trying to hit it but it dodges her, floating back in front and she is ready for another blast; holding the blade in front of her face as she shifts weight between her two feet. When the remote made no move, Elektra stabs forwards with the lightsaber, the sphere moving to the side in a hurry and shoots her in the other arm where she had been sliced in Snoke’s throne room. 

Reaching out to the Force, Elektra tightens her grip on the hilt, slashing right to left then left to right at the remote before doing a spin and lashes out her blade, tearing through a tree trunk with sparks and bark splinters. She kept the momentum of her twirl, the remote speeding away and she tore after it like a tornado with teeth gritting. The remote dodged, lightsaber slicing through another tree trunk and collapsing over onto its side. Her body comes to a stop, eyes intense on the buzzing remote and just the noise of it flying began to make Elektra’s blood bubble. 

Connecting to the Force came easily these days. So easily it was like breathing. But the peace, the calm that her mother Leia was always going on about had escaped her. A roiling dark cloud of frustration grew inside of her now. 

The remote sent another blast and she deflected it, sending it flying into the trees before it fired again and getting her in the exact same arm, the exact same spot, once again. Elektra became enraged, hardly realizing what she was doing as raw instinct took over. She whips around and violently throws her lightsaber, winging it like a propeller through the air at the red remote. It dodge, and the lightsaber sliced through yet another tree. The remote screamed as it dived for her head, but this time she was ready. 

She threw out her left hand, reaching with the Force for one certain thing that was back at the base but she knew that her determination would bring the item quicker; faster. She heard it traveling through the air, coming in hot just like the remote and she finally felt it fly into her palm, she twirled it over her head with both hands and spun. She had anticipated the exact angle of attack, and she whipped Rey’s quarterstaff and thrust it into the remote, crushing it against a nearby tree trunk. The lightsaber travels directly back to her, landing with a satisfying smack as the crushed red remote twitched and sparked against the tree. 

Just then whispers filled her ears. No, her very mind. All went deathly silent as sweltering darkness closed in, threatening to smother her. An image sprang to mind, and she flinched away, though there was no avoiding the horrible sight. She saw herself, wind whipped and alone, standing in a forsaken landscape of endlessly fractured ground as the air crackled with electricity. Kylo appears, standing before her, begging her to join him as he reaches out his hand to her in Snoke’s throne room. Then a deeper, mechanical voice speaks, asking Elektra to join him as more images rapidly placed themselves before her own eyes—all from her memory—when she had touched the dark side of the Force. She knew the voice had belonged to her grandfather, Darth Vader, the most recognizable Sith throughout history other than his master who had corrupted him. The Emperor. 

Then Elektra sees a brief moment of clarity, seeing the reduced, smoldered helmet of Vader and a gloved hand resting on it. Kylo stood over it, his eyes shut loosely, him connecting to her mind with seeing her memories and her fears, and even fractions of her future.

Suddenly, the tide shifts, the focus going now all on her brother’s as she hears their father, Han, call out his real name. There was flickering of images of Luke’s face. Then Kylo’s on Mustafar, shaking his head as if he was having a mental warfare raging inside his head. Han Solo on the Starkiller Base’s bridge, his hand on his son’s cheek after he’d been pierced with the fiery red lightsaber, falling off and into the abyss down below. Elektra’s own voice echoing out, telling Kylo that he had known what he had done, and there’s a montage of them being children and playing around happily. Then a haunting, ghostly voice whispers, “You killed him, and you’ll kill her too”. A quick flash displays—

Kylo shoots his eyes open, removing his hand from the helmet in an instant, staring at the item and feels his breath get stuck in his throat for a moment. He didn’t find what planet Elektra had been on or even what system, but he had seen her training and he had unbarricaded her mental wall; seeing inside of her head and once she sensed him spying, she had done the same to him. What he saw had made him unsteady, knowing that what Palpatine had told him was already becoming true and he needed to stop it. 

Elektra was whimpering softly, trying to calm her nerves because she had seen the throne that belonged to darkness and evil in her mind, and she knew that it wasn’t her memory or her brother’s. It must’ve been a peak into the future, but that couldn’t be true. She’d never touch it; Elektra had already chosen a path for herself, to be a Jedi. 

There was a chirping and Elektra blinks, coming to her senses and surroundings, glancing over her shoulder to see BB-8 trapped under a felled tree. She drops the lightsaber’s hilt, the red flag, and Rey’s quarterstaff on the ground, dashing over to the astromech. 

“BB-8, I’m so sorry!”

He babbles at her while she extricated him from the fallen trunk, it took a little help from the Force to free him completely. 

One of the orange discs protecting his modular tool bay had popped off, exposing a dark channel to his motive system. She’d hurt her friend and Poe was going to be livid with her, but not any more than she already was with herself. 

While heading back to base with Rey’s quarterstaff and Luke’s lightsaber, Elektra wanted to tell her mother what had happened but ultimately decided against it. She already had enough things to worry about, and Elektra needed her mother to believe in her, to trust her. 

She just needed more training. More time meditating in the Force, more time seeking the peace Leia was trying to teach her. She could do it. She _had_ to. If only she could hear voices through the Force, like Leia could. Surely Luke could provide some guidance.

As Elektra and BB-8 neared the basecamp, she decided to try again. _Nothing’s impossible,_ Leia had said. 

“Uncle Luke,” she said. “I’m afraid.” Elektra glanced around, making sure only BB-8 was there to observe her speaking to no one. She reached out to the Force, and said, “Before I felt it, you saw it. I’m drawn to the dark side. Or maybe it’s drawn me. I don’t know. Whatever it is, it’s stronger now, and I can’t push it away, hard as I try . . . I don’t understand it.” 

BB-8 beeps. 

“Shh. Uncle Luke? I think you can hear me. I need your—”

BB-8 beeps again, more insistently. 

“Force spirits; Uncle Luke wrote about them in the Jedi texts. They come when you need them the most.” She informs him. 

The droid remained loudly skeptical. 

Elektra ignored him. “Uncle Luke,” she tried again. “I don’t want to lose this . . . And my friends . . . I don’t want to let them down. I don’t want to let you or Mom down.” 

There it was. Her greatest fear. That everyone she’d cared for and those who trusted her would be disappointed in her. Maybe even hurt by her. 

“I already let Ben down.” Elektra pauses. “And he was the only person who had ever understood me, like how I understood him.” 

A twig cracked, and Elektra looked up. Rose Tico, Meredith Novan, and Connix’s brother Rhys were walking toward her, questions writ all over their faces. 

“How much of that did you hear?” She questions. 

“Of what?” Rhys said, failing to look innocent. 

“Nothing.” Elektra mumbled. 

Rose’s expression softened with empathy. The commander of the Engineering Corps had a disarming quality about her. Whenever she spoke to Elektra, it was all Elektra could do to keep from spilling all her fears and worries to her friend. “You okay?” Rose askes. 

“Yeah, I was . . I was just doing . . .”

“Jedi stuff,” Rose finished for her. 

“Yeah.” 

Meredith then spoke. “The general asked for you.” 

Elektra took a deep breath, not saying another word and continued towards camp with BB-8 still rolling besides her. 

Leia must have sensed her hesitation, her interruption, or she was standing by Rey’s quarterstaff when it had magically flown through the air and directly into the jungle. It possibly wasn’t smart thinking on Elektra’s part but the anger she felt in the heat of the moment was too overpowering to care which ultimately brought BB-8 to being pinned under one of the many split trees she cut with the lightsaber. 

Elektra arrived around her and Rey’s workbench, seeing her mother and Rey waiting for her. She softly handed Rey her staff back with an apology, avoiding a power line snaking across the ground. Their base on Ajan Loss was barely cobbled together. Consoles sat outside, exposed to the elements. A massive cave provided some shelter for sleeping, and an old rebel blockade runner called the Tantive IV—currently grounded while awaiting replacement parts—served as command quarters for Leia as well as a communications center. Elektra and Rey, like many Resistance fighters, had chosen to sleep on cots tucked against a wall of green jungle near the entrance. A footlocker, a workbench, and a lot of mud completed the girls’ ‘quarters’. 

Leia watches as Elektra eyes her in silence before drifting her stare away and seeing the sight of her unfinished lightsaber on her and Rey’s workbench. It wasn’t ready yet but Elektra was confident she’d eventually finish it from scratch, after all, she had helped Ben create his own. 

“You alright, Bre?” 

“I didn’t finish the training course. I got distracted.” Her daughter informs her, staring back at her. “I’m just not feeling myself. I know it looks . . . I know it looks like I’m making excuses.” 

Leia’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t tell me what things look like. Tell me what they are.” 

Elektra felt herself frowning, she wanted to tell the truth but fear was holding her back. “I think I’m just tired.” 

“General?” Lieutenant Connix’s voice interrupted and Elektra would’ve been lying if she said that she hadn’t felt relief when she did. 

The women looked over. Kaydel Connix wore her hair in braids now, wrapped around her head like a crown just like Leia. A lot of them were doing that, heck even Elektra did when she was with the First Order, to remind herself that she still was an Organa like her mother as she took on her persona as a Ren. 

“The Falcon still hasn’t arrived,” Connix said. “Commander’s asking for guidance.” 

The general would have to go and deal with that, so Elektra grabbed Luke’s lightsaber from her belt and handed it to her mother. Leia stares at it, even Rey who had fixed it for Elektra, both stunned. What _had_ distracted her in her training to give back the lightsaber? 

“I will _earn_ this. One day.” 

From day one, the lightsaber had called to Elektra but she had never earned it. Not really. It called her to be a Jedi and she took on that role, but still didn’t deserve it. Once her training was done, that’s when she would truly have the honor to obtain it. Just because it was the Skywalker legacy lightsaber didn’t mean it was hers by birthright. 

Leia takes it and BB-8 beeps a question, which coaxed a smile out of Elektra and even Rey. 

“BB, I don’t think you could earn it for her.” Rey tells him. 

“Never underestimate a droid,” Leia says with a smile and heads off after Connix, Luke’s lightsaber in hand. 

“Yes, Master.” Rey whispers, seeing her leave and notices how one of BB-8’s orange discs was missing. “What happened?” 

Elektra bashfully admitted about striking down a tree and how the poor astromech got caught under it. Together, they headed through the base toward the mechanic’s station as BB-8 rolled after, chirping sadly as he worried for Poe, Finn, Chewie, and Klaud.


	14. Jedi Stuff

Poe had braced himself for the next hit. They were losing, their soldiers crushed by the onslaught, their enemy gloating in their faces. He loved to see them suffer. He gave them a sly look as he started to make a move . . . then changed his mind. 

“Are you ever gonna go?” Poe said to Chewbacca, as the Wookie studied the holochess board. They sat around the table, Chewie on one side, Poe and Finn on the other. It was a long ride in the Falcon to Sinta Glacier Colony, and they had to pass the time somehow. This was their third game. One the last mission, they’d played two games. Before that, well, Poe had lost count. 

“He can’t beat us every time.” Finn uttered. 

“Apparently he does.” 

Finn’s eyes narrowed. “How does he do it?”

“This guy right here? Its ‘cause he cheats.”

Chewie roared. 

“I’m kidding!” Poe leans back. 

“Oh, come on. Take your turn. You’re taking forever. That’s cheating. That’s why we think you’re cheating.” Finn tells the Wookie. 

“You’re two hundred fifty years old. Of course you’re better than us.” Poe informs him. 

The Falcon beeps, indicating that they were nearing their destination and Chewie rose from the holochess table, moaning with insistence. 

“Don’t worry!”

“We’re not gonna turn it off.” Poe assured, trying to appear affronted as Chewie left and headed toward the cockpit. 

“He’s cheating.” Finn murmurs, standing up to head. 

“Definitely.” Poe nods in agreement, turning off the board and follows Chewie, passing R2-D2 and Klaud. “Klaud, I hope you fixed that surge.” 

They were trying to fix a pesky short that had been working its way through the Falcon’s electronics ever since their last mission. Poe had no idea what species Klaud was or where he came from, and he thought General Leia was losing her mind when she assigned him to Rose’s mechanic team. For one, he had no arms; in fact, Poe thought he looked like a giant slug on flippers. For two, he spoke a language only the droids understood. But it turned out to be a good decision because Klaud could occasionally manipulate objects with his prehensile antennae, and his keen mind made short work of mechanical problems. He and R2;D2 worked well together. 

Poe reached the cockpit as the Millennium Falcon came out of lightspeed in front of a massive, mountainous asteroid made of ice. With a nod to Chewie, he dropped into the pilot’s chair. From the viewport window, he could see its comet origins in its uneven surface, the way gas lifted off it like fog. It seemed small, its chasms merely cracked on a glowing white space lump. Just as he hoped, the Falcon detected no sign of pursuit. Poe aimed the freighter toward the rendezvous point and plunged toward the mining colony. 

Finn passed the entrance to the cockpilot and headed towards the top hatch to get ready for their pick up. Based on the sparks flying out of the panel that Klaus was repairing, they’d been lucky on their last assignment. If the Falcon had suffered one more hit, they would have been a pile of flaming debris. 

Well, maybe it wasn’t really luck. He and Poe and Chewie made a good team. A great team, on those rare occasions when Elektra and Rey accompanied them. But Elektra had more important things to worry about; ‘Force’ things that Finn was doing his best to understand. He’d seen what Elektra could do, sensed how important she was to their case. But he had to admit, when he was out here, and she was back on Ajan Kloss, he missed her. He made Rey promise that she’d keep an eye on her, and she had, her giving him daily reports whenever they left. 

Poe had taken the Falcon into the Sinta ice tunnels, where water vapor and mining processes created a bit of atmosphere. The ship felt wobbly beneath Finn’s feet, as though it was fishtailing. Not Poe’s fault, he was certain. These asteroids were tricky. 

The Falcon lurched to a stop. 

The round hatch above Finn revealed a dim icy corridor, a wash of cold, moist air, and the greenish-yellow face of an Ovissian with a wide, horn-to-horn grin. 

“Boolio, good to see you.” Finn calls up. Boolio was a mine overseer who’d been siphoning surplus minerals to Resistance friendly transports for months. Finn himself had picked up shipments twice. “What’s so important? You got the regulator?”

Leia needed the regulator desperately to get the Tantive IV in top flying shape one again, but these old model parts were hard to come by, and this was one of the few they’d been able to track down. It was also the cheapest. 

Boolio shook his head. “No part. But we have a new ally. A spy in the First Order!” 

“A spy?” Finn was shocked. “Who?”

“I don’t know! But the news is bad. Transfer the spy’s message to your droid and get it to Leia. Hurry!” 

Boolio tossed down a data cable. 

Finn grabbed it. “Any idea at all who—” 

“They wouldn’t say. But someone left a datafile in my office after the last First Order inspection.” He looked back over his shoulder nervously. 

Finn gestured at R2.D2, who rolled toward him. “This could be big, R2.” He inserted the cable into the droid’s dataport. All the while his mind was racing. 

This was why Boolio had insisted they come all the way across the galaxy for the regulator. This was why he’d told them the part was critical, that it wouldn’t last long. It was a rare piece, sure, practically an antique. But Boolio’s urgency had seemed excessive, especially in relation to the rock bottom price he was offering. Now it all made sense. Somehow he’s gotten a message from a First Order spy. Ans as a mere mine overseer, he didn’t have a secure frequency. His only choice was to draw them here in person by promising a part that didn’t really exist. 

“Please hurry,” Boolio says. “If they knew to leave the message with me, then someone in the First Order knows I’ve been in contact with the Resistance.” 

Which meant the First Order could return at any moment. Finn found himself tapping the side of his thigh, as if to hurry the transfer along. Old tech, low temps . . . who knew that kind of shape that data cable was in? They could be here for hours. 

The Falcon’s sensor beeped aggressively, startling Poe from his slouch. He gaped at the console. Was he reading this right? Twenty-something objects approaching from all directions. TIEs, based on the size and speed. He peers out the viewport window, seeing them for himself to confirm. 

“Finn, we’re about to be cooked!” He started flicking switches, getting the Falcon ready for a hot exit. 

“We’re almost there!” Finn called back just as R2-D2 beeps that the transfer was complete. Finn yanked the cable from the droid’s dataport. “Poe, we got it!” 

Boolio pulled it up fast, hand over hand. 

“How do we thank you?” Finn stares up at him. They’d brought untraceable currency, on Leia’s insistence. The Resistance had a reputation for paying fair, and she would never jeopardize it. But it wouldn’t be nearly enough to trade for First Order intel. 

“Win the war!” Boolio said, and then he slammed the hatch shut just as Finn heard the familiar scream of approaching TIE fighters. He dashed past R2-D2 and Klaud, heading straight for the turret. 

Poe maneuvered the Falcon through the vast chasms of Sinta Glacier Colony. Blue-black ice streamed past in a blue, interrupted occasionally by massive machinery. The chasms were testing his skills to their limits, but they also provided an opportunity. The TIEs chasing them were keeping up so far, but he was the better pilot. He and Chewie just had to hang on long enough for the TIEs to make a mistake and hit a wall, or better yet, for Finn to pick them off with the turret. 

If only Elektra and Rey came along. Then they’d have two operational turrets worked by Finn and Rey, and Elektra would be copiloting with Poe as Chewie helped Klaud and R2-D2 with fixing the ship. Those TIEs wouldn’t stand a chance then. 

A blast tore at the Falcon, nearly throwing him from his seat. Chewbacca moaned. 

“Finn!” Poe yelled into his headset. “You’re supposed to be getting rid of those things!”

Finn fires, hitting a TIE and watching it jerk from its flight path, spinning into the wall of ice where it became an exploding fireball. “I got one!” 

“How many are left?”

“Too many.”

Chewie growls something to Poe as an alarm in the cockpit begins screaming, the pilot reaching to flick it off. 

“What?”

Chewie pointed ahead and slightly to the side, where an enormous mining structure jutted from the ice wall. They were seconds away. This was the opportunity Poe had been hoping for. 

“Good thinking, Chewie.” Poe diverts all remaining shield power to the top, because for this to work, they’d have to cut it very close. “Finn, we can boulder these TIEs!” 

“I was just thinking that.” Finn tells him, flipping a few switches. 

The kind of maneuver was tough to pull off in the light grav of a small celestial body, but he was Poe Damerson, renowned Resistance pilot. He flipped the Falcon neatly, lining up the shot. Finn spun the lower turret to shoot straight ahead and fired. 

Metal groaned against metal as the machinery broke away from the wall. The Falcon roared under it just as it tumbled, crashing into the three TIEs. Explosions lit up the chasm on all sides, turning the ice walls to fire. 

“Ha!” Finn hollers excitedly. “Get us back to base.”

More TIEs appeared in the cockpit viewport. Too many. Ahead was a sheer wall of ice, dirty with machinery and slag. There was nowhere to go. No way to . . . 

Poe got a terrible idea. 

“How thick do you think that ice wall is?” 

Chewie roars, leaving no doubt what he thought of Poe’s plan. 

The Falcon’s engines roared, and the impact wrenched Poe’s neck. Metal screeched, Klaud screeched, and the freighter shook like a leaf in a hurricane. Suddenly they burst into open space and directly into hyperspace, the Sinta Glacier Colony disappearing into a stream of light. 

The TIEs would follow; they had the technological capability now. There was no getting away. 

Finn ran up into the cockpit, hands gripping on the backs of Chewie and Poe’s seats as the ship popped out of lightspeed into a massive cavern-like structure dripping with sparkling, ship-killing stalagmites. A bright star reflected daggers of light from the crystal columns into Finn’s eyes, but Poe maneuvered through them neatly. The TIEs that popped up into view around them weren’t so lucky. Several exploded before Poe jumped right back into lightspeed. 

Finn felt a little sick to his stomach. “What are you doing?”

“Lightspeed skipping.” 

“How do you know how to do that?”

The Falcon entered a bright space filled with shining white towers—the readout screen identified the Mirror Spired of Ivexia—and their reflective surfaces made it hard for Finn to tell which ones were real or how many TIEs crashed around them. 

Chewie roars to Poe as an alarm blares and he shoots the Wookie a look, “Yeah, well, Bre’s not here, is she?”

Another jump, this time landing them in the middle of the Typhinic Nebula. The giant, tooth rimmed maw of a massive space creature loomed before them. 

“Okay, last jump, maybe forever!” 

Klaud screamed. The Falcon lurched into hyperspace, as the last of the TIEs rammed themselves down the creature’ gullet. 

The Jedi texts were strewn across the workbench, and Elektra was poring over them for the hundredth time. Luke’s added notes on training have been invaluable to her and Rey. C-3PO had translated much of the rest, which had helped Elektra learn about the history of the Jedi and the Sith. But some of the writing remained a mystery, their language too old or too secret to even be in C-3PO’s databanks. 

The odd thing was that some of the mysterious notations were in Luke’s handwritings, which meant they had been carefully ciphered on purpose. Elektra’s friend Beaumont, a former historian and current Resistance intelligence officer, had been working to unlock these portions, and Elektra hoped to have answers soon. 

In the meantime, she was looking for a clue in the translated texts, anything that might help her interpret her vision. Or better yet, something that would help her find peace. Now that the Force was within her, she had more questions than ever before. If she could embrace Leia’s calm, she was certain she’d sleep better, train better, become a Jedi to make her mother—and Luke, wherever he was—proud of her. 

“Elektra,” Rey softly steps over, a metal bowl containing cut up pineapple, starfruit, and shuura in hand as BB-8 rolls behind her, still not fixed since they couldn’t find any pieces for him. “Brought you some fruit.”

“Thanks.” She reaches up, grabbing two cubes of shuura and popping them into her mouth. 

“You’re still going on about them books?” Rey takes a slice of pineapple, eating it. 

Elektra nods. “Just trying to find something about what I need to do to find inner peace and connect to the Jedi who came before me.” 

“Anything?” 

She shakes her head, flipping a page. “Nope.” Her eyes scan over a page, seeing a drawn pyramid shape and lingers for a moment. 

Elektra itched to be in a fight, the girl from the First Order was still inside of her, and that girl learned how to fight from the Knights of Ren. A secret that she hadn’t told anyone about. But if one thing was clear from her visions; the fight would soon come to her, whether she was ready or not.

She continues on flipping through the pages, clearing her mind and shifts a glance to Rey, seeing her eye her quarterstaff. Elektra thought that maybe Rey was upset with her for calling for her weapon since it had hers ever since she was a child on Jakku and anyone merely touching it was a form of broken trust. But that wasn’t the case, Rey found it comforting; knowing that Elektra needed help and went to the first thing that popped in her mind. Herself. 

Elektra told Rey how she got upset over the remote, doing a saber throw and called on the staff as a backup plan and smashed the sphere into bits and pieces. She had even apologized for the act, not knowing if she or anyone was near it at its time of flight. Rey told her that no one was but she did sense it taking off into the jungle and how Elektra’s emotions were uncharting, notifying Leia about it which is why Rose, Meredith, and Rhys were sent after to retrieve her.

Elektra’s eyes were still stuck on Rey, just noticing the small details in her irises and how her signature hairstyle of the three buns took on a newer style since her hair had grown. They were fuller, connected rather than separated like before. Her nose was pointy but it reminded Elektra of the moon whenever it’s crescent and her smile was bright, full of optimism and life. Her lips were in a love's bow, perfectly arched and soft pink. Elektra only guessed that they were gentle and smooth to the touch, and that’s all she could do. Just guess. 

“Elektra!” Vira Hurtling, called, startling her from her thoughts. “Falcon’s back.” 

Well, that was a relief. Elektra had started to legitimately worry about her friends. 

“Thanks, Vira!” Vira was a runaway that had come to Ajan Kloss to seek adventure after living in her village for twenty-six years. She landed on the moon, setting up her own home and hadn’t left since. When the Resistance arrived, she greeted everyone with suspicion, thinking they were going to take her back to her dreadful and boring home. Once Leia told her who they were and what they were doing, Vira became eager to join the ranks and she did; becoming a new pilot who’d just been given charge of her own fighter. Poe thought she had great potential. 

Elektra, Rey, and BB-8 hurried over to the landing area, which was no more than a cleared space in the middle of the jungle. Good thing the Falcon could land on a credit chip. 

She stopped short when she saw her ship, her heart clenched as Rey stood next to her. Black smoke curled up from the engines. Scorch marks streaked the hull. The sub-alternators were a writhing mass of charred wires and warped housing. What had Poe done? 

The pilot himself was striding down the ramp, and she briefly forgot to be angry. She was just glad to see him back safe. “It’s on fire!” Poe was yelling, as droids and mechanics started hosing down the smoking bits. “Whole thing’s on fire. All of it. On fire!” He spotted her approaching with Rey. “Hey!” 

“Hey!” Rey answers him. “There’s a spy?”

Poe seemed a bit haggard, sweat sheening his brow, his shirt blotched with oil stains. He’d apparently done his best to conduct some emergency repairs on the trip back. “Really could have used your girls’ help out there.” 

“How’d it go?” 

“Really bad, actually.” Poe places his hands on his hips, nodding. “Really bad.” 

Something sparked under the Falcon’s belly. “My dad’s ship . . .”

Poe’s face fell even farther when he spotted BB-8 and his dislodged tool bay rim. “What’d you do to the droid?” 

Elektra peers back at BB-8, exchanging a look with Rey before staring back at Poe. “What’d you do to the Falcon?”

“Falcon’s in a lot better shape than he is.”

“BB-8’s not on fire. The whole—”

“What’s left of him isn’t on fire,” he threw back. 

What was Poe talking about? It was just a tool bay cover. “Tell me what happened,” Elektra said, trying to change the subject. 

“You tell me first.” 

She gave him a humorless smile. “You know what you are?”

“What?” He raised an eyebrow in challenge. 

“You’re difficult. Really difficult.” 

“You . . .”

“You’re a difficult man.” 

“You are . . .” Poe made a noise of exasperation. 

“El!” Finn’s voice calls. 

“Finn!” She moves past Poe as he kneels down in front of BB-8 and covers his face. “You made it back!” 

Finn was descending the ramp, and his face lit up as she headed over. “Barely,” he says. Finn had grown his hair out a bit in defiance of First Order regulation, giving him a more relaxed air. In general, Finn had become easier in his own skin in the months after Crait and Elektra thought it suited him perfectly. 

BB-8 warbled at Poe, telling him about the training mishap, while Elektra wrapped her arms around her friend in a tight hug. Letting Finn fly off and put himself in danger without her was one of the hardest things about Jedi training. She was always so relieved when he returned in one piece. 

“Buddy, look at you,” Poe inspects BB-8’s damaged casing. 

“Bad mood?” 

“Me?”

“Him.” She jabs a thumb over her shoulder at Poe. 

_“Always_ ,” Finn said, drawing the word out with a flourish. 

Rey came over, giving Finn a hug as well. “Do we have a spy?” 

Chewie interjected with an outraged, multisyllabic moan once he had seen Elektra. 

Her eyes widened, turning to face Poe. “You lightspeed skipped?” 

Finn winced. “Oh, boy . . .”

“He’s in for it.” Rey folds her arms in front of her chest. 

“Yeah, well, it got us back here, didn’t it?”

“Poe, the compressor’s down.” Elektra informs him, her tone more accusing than she intended. 

“Oh, I know, I was there.” 

Finn and Rey walk over, Finn shaking his head. “Every time.” He mutters, shrugging. 

“You can’t lightspeed skip the Falcon!” Elektra says, unable to stop herself. How could Poe take that kind of risk with the Resistance’s most precious asset? Besides, she _loved_ that ship. 

Poe then swings up into her line of sight, standing only four inches taller than her. “Actually, it turns out you can.”

“Alright, guys, we just landed, okay?” Finn tried to sound reasonable. 

“What happened?” Elektra pressed on. 

“Bad news, that’s what happened.”

Elektra felt her frustration build. She understood that Poe had just been through something, but she needed information. Rey sensed it, grabbing her hand to try and calm her down. She then directs the conversation. 

“Did we make contact with a spy?”

“There’s a mole in the First Order.” Finn confirmed. “They sent us a message.” 

Poe started to head off, but he couldn’t resist throwing some final words at Elektra over his shoulder: “You dropped a _tree_ on him?”

“You blew _both_ sub-alternators?” She slung back. 

“Guys,” Finn said. 

“Maybe you should be out there with us!” Poe said, rounding on her. He was good and angry now, but Elektra could sense it had little to do with BB-8. 

“You know I want to be out there with you!”

“Yeah, but you’re not. You’re here training. And for what?” He took a deep breath, as if considering. Elektra could see the exact moment he decided to give it to her straight. “You’re one of the best fighters we have. We need you.” His eyes shifted to Finn. “Out there, not here.”

Elektra had nothing to say to that. Poe was right. But Leia was right, too. Elektra needed all the training she could get to face what was to come. She wished there was a way to make both of them happy. 

Poe caught sight of someone, and Elektra was relieved to no longer be the subject of his merciless glare. “Meredith!” He calls out. 

Meredith was the daughter of Marcel Novan who fought in the Galactic Civil War, both fleeing from their planet Corellia to join the Resistance after hearing what had happened to the New Republic. Marcel had been in a transport that blew up, leaving the girl with more hate towards the First Order. Elektra had no idea what she had thought about her, mostly because she was the sister of the ‘Jedi Killer’ but Meredith was good friends with Poe and Poe just made it noted that even when he was being a hothead that he still cared for her. 

“Get R2’s data transferred and into reconditioning,” Poe ordered. 

“Yes, Commander,” Meredith replies, leaving with the droid while Poe and BB-8 headed toward Rose’s repair station. 

Elektra sadly looks to Finn and he shrugs. “It’s true,” he says, agreeing when Poe said that she was a good fighter and did belong with them on their missions. 

It was about an hour later when everyone gathered beneath Leia’s ship for the debriefing; all Elektra’s friends, Leia’s advisors Maz Kanata and Commander D’Acy, even the droids. 

Poe addressed the group. “Thanks to C-P3O and Beaumont, we’ve decoded the intel from the First Order spy, and it confirms the worst.” He waited a moment, as though reluctant to continue. After a deep breath, he added, “Somehow, Palpatine has returned.” 

Elektra went ice cold, lips parting slightly, hearing everyone around her gasp and murmur. Her eyes shift, seeing her mother staring at her with a sad expression. 

“Wait. Do we believe this?”

Rhys shakes his head. “No way, it can’t. The Emperor is dead,” he insisted. “Killed aboard the second Death Star.”

“Dark science.” Beaumont mumbles loudly. “Cloning. Secrets only the Sith knew.” He stared off into the distance as if lost in thought. His mental catalogue of Sith lore was vast, and if he thought it was possible for the Emperor to cheat death, then Elektra did, too. 

Besides, Luke’s notes had mentioned that Sheev Palpatine had been obsessed with the idea of living forever. He’d claimed to Anakin that he’d discovered the secret of eternal life from his own master, Darth Plagueis, right before betraying and killing him. Luke had assumed it was a lie, meant to tempt Anakin to the dark side. But what if there was truth to it?

“He’s been planning his revenge. His followers have been building something for years. The largest fleet the galaxy’s ever known. He calls it the Final Order. In sixteen hours, attacks on all free worlds begin.” 

Chewie warbled something. 

“The Emperor and his fleet have been hiding in the Unknown Regions. On a world called Exegol.” 

Elektra’s attention picks up from her feet, staring straight at Poe with wide eyes. She remembered reading about Exegol in Luke’s notes. 

R2-D2 danced in place, demanding that C-3PO tell everyone about Exegol. 

“The planet does not appear on any star chart,” the protocol began, but Elektra was hardly paying attention. She’d _seen_ it before. She was sure of it. “But legend describes it as the hidden world of the Sith.” 

“He must have been behind the First Order. It was Palpatine.” 

“Palpatine’s been out there all this time,” Poe agreed. “Pulling the strings.” 

“Always,” came General Leia’s voice. “In the shadows from the very beginning.” 

“He created Snoke.” Elektra broke her silence and everyone turned, facing her as the information was dawning on her. “Palpatine created Snoke, and he used him to turn Ben. To create Kylo Ren.” She then shook her head, scoffing. “I _was_ right.” 

“Still doesn’t change the fact of what he has done.” Meredith reports, eyeing the girl who was a few years older than her. “Massacred villages, killed innocent people, destroyed Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Temple. Not to mention killed your own father.” 

Elektra’s eyes flick up to Meredith, her anger fuming but she calms herself down. “I didn’t say it forgives his actions, but he _still_ is _my_ brother.”

She slipped away, getting back to the Jedi texts because she had purpose; a reason to fight. Palpatine had been alive all long, which is the reason why the Force was never put back into balance. He took Anakin away from the path of being a Jedi, killed Padme, and turned Anakin into Darth Vader. Luke came, saving his father and Vader then turned on Palpatine by killing him. Palpatine then had created Snoke to ruin Luke by turning Ben into the dark side, like how he did with Anakin, and creating him to be Kylo Ren because Ben was strong from the mighty Skywalker blood. From that Kylo was set to destroy Luke because he saw how Luke was contemplating on killing him at the temple. It was all one big chain of reaction. And Elektra was upset. 

Elektra rummaged around in the crate where she kept the Jedi texts. She tossed one aside. Then another. She dug deeper, grabbing the text with the large round seal on the front.

Finn watched as Elektra came back, the Resistance still speaking. “If we want to stop him,” Maz said, her gentle voice penetrating the din with quiet authority, “we must find him. We must find Exegol.” 

“I think I have something.” She softly interjected, eyes landing on her mother. 

Leia wouldn’t have minded if Elektra had chosen to show this to everyone at once, but the Jedi texts had last belonged to Luke, and her daughter was always respectful of his memory and their family’s legacy. So they left the group, being alone in Leia’s quarters. 

“I know how to get to Exegol.” 

Leia perked up. “Tell me.” 

“Uncle Luke searched for it. For a long time, and he nearly found it.” Elektra found what she was looking for and brought the book closer for her mother to see the page. “There are ciphers here I can’t read, but he said, ‘to get there you need one of these’. A Sith wayfinder.” She pointed to the pyramidal drawing that she had spotted numerous times before that day. “They’re compasses that lead the way to Exegol.” 

Leia’s breath came fast. If Luke had already been searching, then they simply had to find his trail and pick up where he’d left off. This gave them somewhere to start. It gave them hope. 

“If we’re to find this fleet,” Elektra continued, “to stop what we both know is coming, I need to and find Exegol. Find the Emperor.” 

“No,” Leia choked out. Elektra wasn’t ready. There was so much left for her daughter to learn! If Elektra left too soon, she could be drawn to the dark side. Leia had sensed her pull to the dark, the same way she had sensed it in Ben years ago. 

But Elektra’s eyes continued to plead with her, Leia had to face the truth: Elektra needed more training, it was true. But the real reason she couldn’t bear to see her go was because she knew what would happen. 

“What have I been training for if not for this?” Elektra questioned. “I don’t want to go without your permission. But I will.” 

Leia was still shaking her head. 

“I will,” Elektra insisted. “It’s what you would do.” 

Leia had no answer for that and Elektra left, making it sit heavily on a couch inside of her cavern quarters. Ramifications were hitting from all sides. The massive fleet of Palpatine could mean the end to the Resistance, the end of hope for the galaxy. Unless the Resistance stopped him, the Sith would rise again. 

The Sith had undoubtedly been planning this for years. Maybe generations. The Emperor and her father, Darth Vader, should have been the last of them. But when one fell, another rose. Always. 

She should have known Palpatine had been a fixture in her life, from the time she was a toddler princess on Alderaan. Over and over again, she’d watch him encounter setbacks, only to rise more powerful than before. He was smart, determined, and aggravatingly prepared. Always two steps ahead of everyone else. 

Leia didn’t know what this contingency plan entailed exactly, but she’d bet Han’s medal there was so much more to it than merely a colossal fleet. 

She flashed back to Elektra, to her daughter’s bleak face as she’d come back from her training. She was holding something back, but Leia wasn’t the kind to push that sort of thing. It wouldn’t be good leadership. People were ready when they were ready. 

It’s just that she was so tired. She’d hoped to have a little more time . . . to train Elektra in the ways of the Jedi, to train Poe in the ways of command, to see Finn and Rey and Connix and Rose, all grow into the great leaders she knew they could be. But she did not have the luxury of time, or rest, or even regret. 

Elektra had barely finished packing when Maz found her at her workbench. Maz was tiny and unassuming, but her warm wide wide and compelling voice made Elektra want to do anything Maz asked of her. She braced herself. 

“Leia and Rose will stay behind to plan the attack on the fleet,” Maz informs her. “But there can be no attack until you’ve completed Luke’s mission. To find Exegol.” 

Elektra’s heart raced. She had _wanted_ to attack. To make Palpatine pay for all he had done to her family. If she finds a Sith wayfinder, she will use it to travel to Exegol without a second thought. 

“Maz, I might be a danger to the mission.” 

“There’s no one else,” Maz said, somehow managing to sound gentle and firm at the same time. “The search for Exegol is a task for a Jedi.” 

Elektra glanced at the pieces of her unfinished lightsaber. Maz had urged her to take Luke’s lightsaber long ago, when Rey and her found it beneath her castle on Takodana. Maz had seen what Elektra would become before anyone else. “I’m not a Jedi. Not yet, anyways.”

Maz leaned forwards. “To find the darkest place in the galaxy, you’ll need to face the darkest part of yourself.” 

Somehow she knew what Elektra was up against. Somehow, Maz always knew. 

“The Force had led you here. You must trust in it. Always.” 

Elektra disconnected a fuel hose from the Falcon. Rose and Rhys had worked miracles, getting the compressor back online, repairing the sub-alternators. Elektra herself had buffed out some of the scorch marks and fine-tuned the rear shields. Her ship was nearly prepped and ready, anticipation buzzed in her limbs. She was moments away from being behind the controls again. She’d run a few assignments with Finn, Rey, and Poe when they’d first established the base on Ajan Kloss, but for months now she’d been stuck here, training, training, training. Porting over Jedi texts with Beaumont’s and C-3PO’s help. Working on her own lightsaber. But she yearned to see space again. To get back into the fight. To feel truly useful and like her old self again. 

Wiping her hands, she cut around the Falcon toward the on-ramp, nearly running into Rhys and Rose.

“Thank you,” she said to the mechanics. “I can’t believe how fast you guys got this ship ready.”

Rhys smiled. “Anything for our Jedi.”

Rose nods. “And the Falcon.”

“You’ve been so kind to me. You and Beaumont,” she motions to Rose then to Rhys, “you and Kaydel . . .”

Rhy’s smile faltered and Rose gave a glare. “Why does it feel like you’re saying goodbye forever?”

“I’m not. I just . . .” Elektra didn’t know what she was trying to say.

Before she could figure it out, Rose enveloped her in a hug. “Me too,” she whispered to Elektra. “No go do your Jedi stuff.” After a final squeeze, Rose heads toward the Falcon for a last minute inspection of the ship’s landing gear. 

Rhys helps Elektra with grabbing a crate and loading it onto the ship when she hears a group of people approaching her. 

“So you got her up and running,” Poe said. 

“You were right before,” she blurted. “I can’t stay. I have to fight and I can do that by picking up Uncle Luke’s search for Exegol. Start where his trail went cold. The Forbidden Desert of Pasadena. I’m going to finish what he started.”

“Yeah, I know,” Poe says, giving her shoulder a friendly smack. “We’re going with you.”

Elektra stood, mouth agape, as Poe began heading inside of the ship with Chewie. Before she could formulate a response, she caught sight of Finn and Rey approaching. 

“I need to go alone.”

Finn nods. “Yeah. Alone with your friends.”

“It’s too dangerous.” 

Poe and Chewie drew near, BB-8 rolling after them with C-3PO. 

Finn lifted a chin at them in acknowledgement. “We go together.”

Chewie loudly agrees with Finn and BB-8 beeps his own insistence on going. 

“I wholeheartedly agree,” C-3PO says. 

Elektra looks around at them. Poe was giving her an arch look, as if daring her to contradict them. Finn was as earnest and determined as always. Rey gave her a smile, one that read that they were in this together. Chewie just seemed impatient to be off but that was also because he knew them standing there was making them run out of time.

Her friends and family, the people she was terrified for and yet, she couldn’t keep herself from smiling. 

Leia stood in her quarters, holding Han’s Medal of Bravery. She’d had it with her ever since the day their son had killed him. She wouldn’t be surprised if someday her thumb wore a path through the engraved medal, so often did she find herself rubbing it back and forth, lost in memory. 

“When you gave that medal to Han, how could you know?” Came a voice at her back, just as relentless, almost as dear. Maz Kanata.

Leia turned. Maz was holding Luke’s lightsaber. Once again Leia was struck by how someone so tiny could have such a formidable presence. Maz filled every room she was in. 

“How could you know where your life would take you?” Maz asked. When Leia didn’t answer right away, Maz waved the question away with a flick of her fingers and changed the subject. “I know you fear Bre’s pull to the dark side. That you’ve had visions of her death.” 

Leia frowned. Maybe she's shared too much with Maz. 

“But as you have often reminded me,” Maz went on, “ the future is uncertain. She must find her true path.” 

Something about that hit home. “True path . . .” Leia murmured. Had Ben’s turn set him on his true path? Leia signed to what had happened, but she couldn’t believe it was his true path. And she couldn’t believe it was her daughter’s, either.

Yet something about Maz’s word pestered her. She knew this feeling. The Force was trying to tell her something. About Elektra and her journey. 

“Your spirit is strong my friend,” Maz tells her. “But you are not well. Your body grows weaker and weaker. Give her your blessing. Give her Luke’s lightsaber.”

Leia sighed. Being blown off the bridge of the Raddus into the vacuum of space had taken a toll. She had saved herself that day through the power of the Force, but her body had paid a steep price. 

Maz offered the lightsaber to Leia, who took it reverently. 

“While you still can,” Maz adds. “While there is still hope.”

Everyone was saying their goodbyes and Elektra looked around, the finality of it all like a weight in her gut. It was possible they wouldn’t come back from this. How could the skeleton crew of a single ship discover a way to defeat the greatest fleet the galaxy had ever seen? It seemed ludicrous. But it was their only play. 

C-3PO bent over R2-D2, speaking with uncharacteristic softness. “In the event I do not return . . . I want you to know you have been a real friend, R2. My best one, in fact.”

R2-D2 responded with a happy chirp. 

“Rose, last chance!” Finn was saying.

“The General asked me to study the specs of the old destroyers, so we can stop the fleet if you find them.” 

“If?” Finn prodded. 

Rose smiled. “When.” 

He nods. “When.” 

They hugged, and Rose said, “Take care of Elektra.” After a moment, she adds, “Take care of yourself.” She glanced over at Elektra who was staring out at the mess of jungle and wires and exposed terminals. 

Poe had seen Finn hugging Rose and how Rose’s stare lingered on something else, following the line of sight and seeing Elektra.“We should get going,” he calls out to her, heading over. When he noticed her staring off into space, he added, “What is it?” 

“How long have you liked Finn?” She questions, not sparing him a look but she knew that he was shocked that she mentioned it; let alone knew about it. “Was it when he saved you from the First Order? Or was it after Starkiller Base, when he finally woke up and you were so relieved to see him alive?” 

“In the middle, I guess.” Poe thought about it, when he first met up with BB-8 again after Jakku and saw Finn wearing his jacket. That’s when he realized that he liked the young lad. “Why?” 

Finally, she meets his gaze with a gentle and soft smile. “I’ve been by my brother for all of my life while Rey’s mostly been alone. Us having relationships with people who aren’t family is a new skill, which proves more difficult to learn than floating rocks with your mind or fighting with a lightsaber or even a quarterstaff. You and Finn connected right away, that’s a gift.” 

“Rey and you connected too.” Poe placed his hand on Elektra’s back in a brotherly manner. “She admires you for everything you’ve done for her.” 

“And I’m forever grateful that she was the first person to see me more than the sister of Kylo Ren, aside from you.” 

“When Leia spoke so highly of you, how could I not?” 

“Because she’s my mom.” 

“Bre?” 

Elektra turns, seeing her mother and she hurries towards her. They stood before one another, both making eye contact and Elektra was the first who spoke. 

“There’s so much I want to tell you.” 

_Thank you for not losing hope with me. Thank you for training me even after I deserted Luke twice. Thank you for still loving me even after all that happened. Thank you for being my mother._

“Tell me when you get back,” Leia said. 

Then her hand’s came up, and Elektra gasped at what they held. Leia was offering her Luke’s lightsaber. Gingerly, Elektra took it. She wasn’t sure she’d earned the right to carry it. But the lightsaber always fit so perfectly in her hand. Like two pieces of a puzzle clicking together. 

“Mom,” Elektra felt her voice release from her lips, gazing back up at her. “That night, at the Jedi Temple, Ben was hurt, confused, and angry. He helped me from the rubble, staring at the temple and wondered why Uncle Luke tried to kill him. A storm formed and lightning came down, striking it and exploding it into flames. Ben had no idea what happened, and I didn’t either. It just happened so fast. We both tried to run in and save them but another explosion happened, and that was it. He didn’t want the Jedi Temple to burn.” 

Tears filled her eyes and she was trying to calm herself down, but twin droplets were released and glided down her cheeks. 

“What if . . What if Snoke did it? What if he made Ben believe that _he_ did that when he exactly didn’t? It’s possible, right? It’s possible?”

Leia reached forwards, hugging her daughter tight as she did the same and squeezed her eyes shut. She knew what Elektra’s inter conflict was doing to her. She was asking—no, begging—if it had actually been Snoke who summoned the lightning storm to strike the temple because if it had, then Ben still had hope of turning. It meant Elektra had hope that her pull to dark was just some looming storm that would pass shortly, and that she was a good person. Leia had no answer for Ben but for Elektra— _for Bre_ —there was only one thing she could tell her. 

“Don’t be afraid of who you are, Bre.”

Elektra’s eyes open, her mother’s voice filled with power. With finality. Maybe the Force had shown her something. Or maybe it was just damn good advice. Overwhelmed, Elektra could only nod in a grateful acknowledgment. 

On the Falcon, Elektra settled into the pilot seat. Besides her, Chewie huffed a warm greeting. They locked eyes, and she smiled. 

“It is,” she responded. “Let’s take her up.” 

Poe, Finn, and Rey entered the cockpit, followed by C-3PO and BB-8. Her skeleton crew. The best crew. 

As they lifted off, Maz and Leia stood together on the jungle floor, watching them go. Leia’s heart ached. It was just like watching Ben and Bre leaving to go train with Luke all over again. Like watching Han go off on a mission without her. She was saying goodbye to a part of herself. 

“If she finds Exegol,” Maz begins, “she may just survive.” Like Leia, Maz occasionally caught glimpses of people and places, presents and futures, through the power of the Force. Like Leia, she rarely understood what they meant. “But if she doesn’t, the galaxy will surely not.”


	15. Hurt By Something Bigger

“I have your word?” Kylo Ren said to Albrekh. 

“It’ll be stronger than it was before,” he hissed back. 

Albrekh was the first Symeong who Kylo had ever encountered. He was small and thin, with a jutting jaw and long pointed, wide spaced ears that twitched with every sound of breath of air. Most important, he was a Sith alchemist trained in classic metallurgy, capable of smithing feats unheard of in the modern galaxy. He stood before a heavy stone table, awaiting the shards Ren had promised. 

Kylo considered a moment more. He’d been working alone, pursuing the wayfinder without the Knights, without the mask. But he needed them now to help him find his sister quickly. 

The Knights were arrayed behind him; he sensed Trudgen and Kuruk close at his shoulders. Calling them together again had been unexpectedly and perhaps uncannily easy. They’d accepted him without question, saying the results of his trial years ago still stood. 

He dumped the shards, all painstakingly scavenged from the wreckage of the Supremacy, onto the stone stable. He wasn’t sure how the alchemist would pull it off. There were too many pieces, some of them warped beyond recognition. 

Albrekh rubbed his gloved hands together in anticipation and got to work. It would take a long time. That was fine. Kylo wasn’t known for his patience, but even he found some things worth waiting for. Like Elektra. 

The alchemist spread all the pieces across the table. With uncanny perception and speed, he solved the puzzle of their fitting, placing them proximity to one another in such a way that Kylo could begin to see how the pieces would again become a mask. His mask. 

The mask was his way of hiding who he had been, taking on the newer appearance of Kylo Ren, Supreme Leader under Snoke. It had helped him hide his vulnerability and with his sister at his side, there was no threat because if she acted like he was more of a commander than a brother, others would too. Since she left and had to face his abuser alone, Kylo became unhinged, smashing the helmet into those millions of pieces and allowed her to see the real him for the first time in a long time. Now with Elektra training to be a Jedi and him all alone, trying everything desperately to make sure she was safe and putting all First Order priorities aside, a few officers noticed his change in behavior. 

Kylo needed to maintain the illusion that his sister no longer meant anything to him, only the power of being a Supreme Leader did. It’s why he told the officers about Exegol, about Palpatine’s fleet and how he offered to give him it—leaving out the bit that he had wanted his sister in return. He needed the Knights of Ren to add to that image of strength, like how it used to be with Elektra, no one would dare to make a remark against him if he had the Knights. The helmet was the missing thing; he could be intimidating without them seeing the fear in his eyes, his mechanical voice enriched with seriousness to hide the fear. 

The alchemist used heat pliers and a special mallet to hammer the warped fragments back into shape. The whole room glowed red from the molten metal stewing in a cauldron off to the side. Sarrassian iron, Albrekh had told him. The toughest ore in the galaxy. 

With steady hands, the alchemist placed adjoining pieces side by side, then propped them together with magnetic forceps. He grabbed a long application tool that looked like a metal snake and used it to pour bloody iron into the crack between pieces. It cooled instantly, forming a red adhesive stronger than steel. 

Kylo watched spellbound as Albrekh repeated the process of fitting the shards together, molding them with molten red ore, over and over with severe patience, focus, and precision. Kylo flexed his own hands, wondering how the alchemist’s palms weren’t cramping, how his flesh wasn’t burning to ash. His gloves protected him, no doubt, their fabric yet another Sith secret lose to the rest of the galaxy. 

Finally, the alchemist balanced the mask on a stand and reached for a large ladle. He poured water over the reforged helmet. The water hissed, turning to steam that fogged Kylo’s view. Albrekh repeated the process, again and again, until the mask was fully cooled. 

The alchemist removed his gloves. With his bare, hairy hands, he grabbed the mask and offered it up to Kylo Ren. “It’s safe to wear,” he said. 

He took it, admired it. The mask shaped just as before, but now full of red fractures like crimson lightning. Broken and reformed. Like him. The Knights of Ren raised their weapons in honor as Kylo placed the mask over his head. It was heavier than ever. It reeked of molten metal. 

They headed back to Steadfast, charging down the corridor, a phalanx of sweeping black robes and black masks. Stormtroopers and officers flinched away as they passed. He barely paid them any mind. He’d gotten word that a spy had tolden the Resistance of Exegol when he boarded and his heart sank into the pit of his stomach. _Elektra now knows._

All his officers were already seated around the table of the High Command conference room—Quinn, Pryde, Hux, Parnadee, Engell, and a handful of others—when Supreme Leader Kylo Ren strode inside.

“We have a spy in our ranks who just sent a message to the Resistance. Whoever this traitor is won’t stop us. With what I’ve seen on Exegol, the First Order is about to become a _true_ Empire.” 

He strolled to the viewport, allowing himself to feel a small amount of disgust with his words. Mentally, he thanked Albrekh for the mask. They couldn’t tell that he was visibly upset, couldn’t tell that he was disappointed in the actual truth of what really happened when the secret was unleashed to the Resistance. Kylo had to keep up this ruse of wanting to be powerful, keep up with the charade that nothing else mattered than being—

Hux was staring fixedly at him and his mask. He felt it, turning slightly over his shoulder at the ginger fellow. “I sense unease about my appearance, General Hux.” 

Hux blinked. “About the mask? No, sir. Well done.” 

“I like it.” General Parnadee agreed. 

“Forgive me, sir, but these allies on Exegol,” came General Quinn’s voice, dripping with contempt. “They sound like a cult. Conjurers and soothsayers.” 

Kylo agreed wholeheartedly even though Quinn’s words seemed to have made the rest uncomfortable, especially Hux, whose expression had gone completely taut. 

“They conjured legions of Star Destroyers,” General Pryde pointed out. “The Sith fleet will increase our resources ten thousand fold.” He turned to General Hux. “Such range and power will correct the error of Starkiller Base,” he said to him, leaving no doubt as to whom he thought was responsible for that debacle. 

“We’ll need to increase recruitments,” General Engell said with more than a hint of glee. “Harvest _more_ of the galaxy’s young.” 

Kylo wanted to object to the manner, his shoulders tensing as he kept himself facing the viewport and listened into their conversation that was going on behind him. He kept on reminding himself to play the role that they needed of him. Cruel, ruthless, emotionless. 

“This fleet,” General Quinn began again. “What is it, a gift? What is he asking in return?” 

_My sister._ Kylo thought before facing Quinn and the other generals, ignoring the question entirely and went back into this role of being the Supreme Leader. 

“Everyone does their jobs.” He orders. “General Pryde, General Hux, follow me.”

The Emperor wanted Elektra to head to Exegol and she would surely be doing that soon, and Kylo couldn’t risk any chances. 

They strode down the corridor of the command ship, Hux barely keeping pace with Ren and Pryde. Behind him came the bass drum boot steps of the Knights. Hux hated the fact that he couldn’t see their faces behind their masks. Maybe they were hideous, scared beyond recognition. Or maybe they had something to hide, that’s how Hux saw Kylo’s improved helmet. He was hiding, and Hux knew why. 

Allegiant General Pryde was updating Ren on their process, or rather lack thereof. Hux wasn’t sure how Pryde was able to deliver bad news without getting his head lopped off with a lightsaber or getting choked to death with the Force. Ren had no soft spots for anyone, unless it was Elektra, so there had to be something else about Pryde. Something that kept him immune. Safe. Unafraid. Hux currently had resources devoted to finding out exactly what that was. 

“Sir,” Pryde was saying. “No leads yet, but the search for the scavenger continues.” 

_Scavenger._ Kylo slightly smirked; he was thankful for Rey in this very moment because he could search for his sister under the name of what Rey was without anyone knowing. Ever since he had connected to her through their grandfather’s mask, he sent for Pryde to find Elektra but under the name of Rey—under a Scavenger. And now, from the Resistance knowing the truth, it added into his plan of wanting to find his sister. Maybe he could give the spy _some_ sort of thank you. 

“There’s no time,” Kylo replies, his voice distant and mechanical from his helmet. 

Hux squinted, he distrusted masks on principle but he was glad for Ren’s because it spared him the indignant assault of the Supreme Leader’s hair. A good leader led by example, and Ren’s hair was the furthest thing from regulation. A small detail, to be sure, but details mattered, and this one represented everything Hux hated about Ren. He was the exception to everything. Outside the rules. Disordered. 

With uncharacteristic acceptance, Kylo said to Pryde, “I will locate her myself.” 

“Yes, Supreme Leader,” 

“When she’s found,” Hux interjected, “I’ll personally take the kill squad to—”

“The Knights of Ren will lead this hunt, General Hux. There is no room for error.” 

There was no smear of contempt in his voice, no impatience or irritation. Just dismissal. 

Hux stood alone in the hall and watched Ren stride away from him, Pryde and the Nights close at his heels. It was that they all thought him a useless imbecile, he assured himself. Advantageous, even. In a way, Hux had his own mask. After all, the fact they underestimated him had allowed him to put certain things in motion. 

The sand was redder and the air smelled tangier than Jakku, as though life thrived on Pasaana but the sun was just as relentless, sand just as insidious, the wind just as dusty and dry. How had Rey ever survived in a place like this? With no green anywhere to be found? Without the protective embrace of humidity? Without good requisitioned boots and a freighter full of water stores parked nearby? Elektra wondered. She had been on Jakku three times in her life. Once as a child when her father and Chewie went on a mission and she snuck into the back of the Falcon. The next was to visit Lor San Tekka with Kylo, trying to find the missing piece of the map that led to their Uncle Luke, and the last was to find Poe, Finn, and BB-8. And they were rough trips, especially the first. 

She was six and Han had his hands tied with a merchant, suggesting that they play a game of sabacc and if Han won, he got the supplies for free and anything else of his choosing. If he lost, he had to pay up and give up his blaster which would’ve been useful for scavenging parts. Something had caught Elektra’s young eye in the sand, wandering off, and finding it to be a robotic hand and picked it up. Using her Force ability of sense echo, she found the droid who the hand belonged to, giving it back and it began talking to her. She vividly remembered it trying to course her into the way of the dark side until Chewbacca was right at her side, rescuing her and destroying the droid beyond repair. To thank him, she drew him a picture saying that she loved him. 

“You sure this is it?” Poe asked her which brought her to the present. 

“Oh, yes,” C-3PO asnwered for her. “These are the act coordinates that Master Luke left behind.” 

Poe opened his mouth to speak, but a colossal drumbeat pierced the sky, so deep it thrummed in Elektra’s chest. It was followed by a single syllabic thunderclap, as though a giant crowd shouted a word in unison. 

They all crept forward, following their ears. The drum sounded again, rolling into a series of beats like a coming storm. Then a mass of voices rose in joyful chorus, and the desert was suddenly filled with alien music that was as beautiful as it was starling. Around a rocky outcropping, a wide valley stretched below them with hundreds of thousands creatures, whirling about in their cloaks, waving colorful flags. 

Kites and banners floated in the air, tents and canopies provided spots of shade, and everywhere were cloaked figures, their movements marking them as not quite human. They danced and mingled, sang and ate, bought wares and sold them, from the near edge of the valley, all the way to the world’s rocky horizon. 

For a forbidden valley there sure were a lot of beings down there. 

“What is that?” Poe asked. 

“The Aki-Aki Festival of the Ancestors.” C-3PO announces delightfully. “This celebration occurs only once every forty-two years.” 

Poe covers his face with his hand, letting it tug at his skin before removing it completely as Finn spoke. “Well _that’s_ lucky.”

“Lucky indeed! This festival is known for both its colorful kites and delectable sweets.”

They all turned around, staring at him and saw them doing so, turning around to see what they were looking at. Elektra just smiled, being the first to descend down. 

The Aki-Aki flowed together like a wave and broke into celebratory dance centered on a circle of bonfires. Brightfully colored smoke rose from the fires, yellow, red, and teal dominating. Building sized treadable vehicles circled the entire camp, their massive treads kicking up sprays of sand. 

Few paid them any mind as they wandered through the festival. Though the vast majority of attendees were Aki-Aki, it appeared species from all over the galaxy had come to the celebration. Poe and Finn scanned the crowd, unsmiling, focused, all business. A clue had to be here somewhere. If they look hard enough—stay alert, stay smart, Poe had said—they’d figure out their next move. 

Elektra and Rey found it hard to pay attention to the task at hand. The dancing was beautiful, so full of life and color, flowing like water, joyful. They watched a tiny Aki-Aki girl stumble in the crowd. Her parents shot forward to rescue her, yanking her up and cuddled her close before she could come to harm. The little girl went right back to dancing as thought nothing happened, without a care in the world because she had others to care for her. 

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Rey said, half to herself as she stood and smiled at their surroundings. 

“I’ve never seen so few wayfinders.” Finn replies drily. 

“There are always random First Order patrols in crowds like these,” Poe reminded them. “Keep your heads down. Especially you, Chewie.” 

Chewie obliged by hunching over, but Elektra wasn’t sure it made him any less noticeable. 

“Let’s split up, see what the locals know.” 

Poe and Finn headed off, Chewie and BB-8 went on their own path while Elektra and Rey were left alone. Elektra glanced around, trying to figure out where to start first and she went to speak until she saw how Rey was witnessing a group of Aki-Aki performing a puppet show. The children stared wide eyed, sometimes laughing. A mother dressed in bright pink sat with them, holding her infant in her arms. Unlike the adults, the little ones didn’t possess long, bifurcated trunks but rather little stubby noses and plump cheeks. Rey thought they were adorable and Elektra just smiled as she saw Rey in pure awe, her heart soaring as it dawned on her that she was completely head over heels for this girl. 

Something tugged on her jacket, and she peered down to find a young Aki-Aki girl in a green robe trying to get her attention. Elektra knelt before her, Rey turns, seeing the two girls and she got down next to Elektra as well. 

The girl held a trinket in her hands, made from woven jute strands and beaded with colorful grain, some kind of corn maybe. Elektra allowed her to place it around her neck. The Aki girl chattered the whole time, in a language that she nor Rey never heard. 

“She is saying welcome.” C-3PO translated for the girls. 

BB-8 came over, warbling at the girl, and Elektra interpreted. “My friend’s asking what the fires are for?” 

C-3PO repeated the question in the Aki language, and the girl answered without hesitation. 

“Their ancestors live in the fire,” C-3PO states. “This is how they show their gratitude. She says her name is Nambi Ghima.” 

“That’s a pretty name.” Elektra smiles. 

“An _excellent_ name.” Rey adds. “I’m Rey. And this is Elektra.” 

Nambi asked a question, and C-3PO said, “She would be honored to know your family names, too.”

Rey took a moment, shaking her head softly with a smile. “I don’t have one. I’m just Rey.” 

Nambi then softly shifts her look to Elektra, awaiting for her answer and she honestly didn’t have one. Of course she was a Solo but like with the legacy Skywalker lightsaber, she felt as if she didn’t earn the right to have that name and she knew that she couldn’t dawn the name Ren because that wasn’t her anymore. But there was one thing she was, one name that she could think of in the moment and the very least did earn. 

“Organa.” 

Nambi wished them a happy festival, leaving and Elektra and Rey stood. Rey was finally getting her head back in the game, back on task but Elektra took her by the hand and had led her out to the dancing Aki-Aki. Without saying a word, she began doing the exact same dance that the Aki were doing. Rey joined in, doing the same and they were both in smiles; allowing themselves to be normal teenagers for a moment and to enjoy the festival. 

Elektra then takes Rey’s hand again, being gentle and does her in a spin, causing the girl to laugh. Rey decided to return the notion, reaching for Elektra’s hand and spun her around in her own twirl. Around and around she went, grinning from ear to ear until her gut twinged with a sudden warning; one she learned to trust. Elektra stops in her spin, her eyes shifting around to try and seek its source. 

She powers off in a walk, making her way through the crowd and keeps on twisting and turning at every single step. An Aki walks in front of her, their dark blue robe blowing past in front of her line of sight and when it clears, the sky is darkened as if the day changed to night in the space of a moment. The bonfires were suddenly bright, casting the Forbidden Valley in ethereal light. The sounds of the festival faded. Something rumbled deep in her chest, something desperate and . . . familiar. 

She sensed him before she saw him, the familiar thing, as close as her own breath. It was Kylo Ren, black clad as always, his cape sweeping the ground. He stared at her in foreboding silence through his mask. It was different now, a patchwork of wicked black pieced together with angry red lines. Her skin dimpled with sudden cold. This wasn’t a vision. It was a Force connection, their first since Crait. And with the connection came a certainty that turned the blood in her veins to ice: He’d been looking for her. 

“I know what you’re doing,” he said, simply and without preamble. 

“Congratulations, you want a reward or something?” 

“No, I have other plans.” 

Of course he did. 

“I offered you my hand once,” he said in that maddeningly calm voice. “You wanted to take it. Why didn’t you?” 

“There were a lot of things I wanted to do but never done.” She tells him in truth, yet in a way that didn’t reveal the reason why she didn’t. 

“You can’t hide, Elektra. Not from me.” 

Elektra noticed that his voice carried an undercurrent of tension, or maybe even regret. That his boots were muddy. That his cloaked form cast a shadow on the desert floor, as though he were really, truly there with her. 

“You can’t either.” She informs him. “I see you fixed your mask, and yet, through the cracks I know you’re haunted. You can’t stop seeing what you did to Dad.” She imagined that moment as clearly as she could. Han’s hand on Kylo’s cheek, gazing at his son with love even as his dying body slumped over the chaotic red lightsaber that had skewered him and she screamed horribly. 

Elektra wrapped her mind around the image. Threw it at her brother. 

He flinched. 

“Where are you?” He asked, reaching for her mind, grabbing something before she could barricade her thoughts. “Somewhere that reminds you of the time when Chewbacca saved you. When we were younger.” 

She steeled herself as he stepped closer into her space, looming over her. 

“I’m going to find you.” He remarks, eyes shifting down to see their father’s jacket that he wore, then a beaded necklace that he automatically knew came from wherever she was. 

“We’ll see.” 

Before Elektra could blink, he grabbed for the necklace with determination and even hesitation, leaving her nape stinging. 

The ground tilted and Elektra was back at the festival, Aki-Aki whirling around her. A tall male approached, a yoke around his neck that branched out into a magnificent display of wares; grain jewelry, colorful fans, candies. Her fingers drifted to her neck, to the empty space where the necklace should have been. Her nape still smarted. 

It had been their most powerful Force connection yet. Even when she’d been in the hut on Ahch-To and their hand had met, it had been nothing like this—so vivid, so dangerously palpable. This time, they’d been in each other’s spaces. Was it because of Elektra training as a Jedi that the bond got stronger? She had no idea. 

While she’d been occupied with Kylo, the crowd had pushed around her, separating her from her friends. She dodged the merchant, searching for the droids and Rey. She found them, waving at them to follow as she hurried off in the direction she’d last seen Poe and Finn and Chewie. She had to reach them _now_. She had to get her friends to safety. 

She spotted Chewie first; even clouching he was at least a head taller than anyone else in the crowd. He stood with Poe and Finn just outside a tent, talking to one of the locals. She wasted no time. 

“We have to go!” Elektra says, running up and interrupting their conversation. “Back to the Falcon, now.” 

“Where were you?” Poe asks.

But Finn read her face. “What’s wrong? What happened?” 

“Ben,” she replies. “He knows we’re here.” Or at least he could soon enough. 

Poe and Finn didn’t question or hesitate. They took off around the tent, heading in the general direction of the parked Falcon. BB-8 rolled along with them as C-3PO struggled to catch up. They’d find another way to investigate the Forbidden Valley. After dark, maybe she could C-3PO to—

They almost collided with a Stormtrooper, who whipped up his blaster. 

“Hold it right there!” 

They froze. Elektra smacking into Finn’s arm and he held her steady. 

Over his comlink, he added, “I’ve located the Resistance fugitives. All units report to—”

Suddenly there was a resounding _crack_. The Stormtrooper’s head jerked backward, an arrow shaft sticking out of his left eye lens. He toppled into the sand, where he twitched once, then went completely still. 

They whirled, seeing the source of the arrow. A tall helmeted figure stood just inside the tent, holding back the flap with a walking stick and the other hand held a scoped dart shooter that looked like a smaller, lighter version of Chewie’s bowcaster. 

“Follow me,” came a distinctly male voice. “Hurry.” 

Elektra exchanged quick glances with her friends, who all nodded, and they set off after the helmeted figure. He hurried in the opposite direction, away from the Falcon, but he’d just saved them a lot of trouble so no one protested. 

The helmeted figure weaved through the crowd, leading them to one of the giant treadable vehicles. The entirety of the vehicle sheltered within its massive treads, the huge drum wheels, the cabin, and the entrance portal. He hurried them through the entrance into the hot, claustrophobic cabin. Supplies and trinkets dangled from the ceiling, and the drive shaft ran right through the center, barely allowing enough headroom. 

“Leia sent me a transmission.” The male voice begins again before calling up to the driver to move the vehicle. The treadable jerked, then lumbered forward. 

Finn perked up. “How’d you find us?” 

The figure reached up for his helmet and lifted it from his head, revealing dark skin, close cropped hair, and a handsome, mustached grin. “Wookies stand out in a crowd.” 

“Uncle Lando!” Elektra rushed forwards, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugged him tight as Chewie roared happily and practically leaped over Finn to place both Elektra and Lando in a crushing group hug. 

Lando just laughed. “Good to see you both, too.” 

“This is General Lando Calrissian!” C-3PO announced. “Allow me to give you a complete history of—”

“We know who he is.” Rey politely told the droid. 

“It’s an honor to meet you, General.” Finn said. 

Chewie talked fast, letting Elektra and Lando go, making Finn frown. Finn had been working hard to learn Shyriiwook and Binary but he still struggled to understand when things got intense. 

“Mom called you?” Elektra finally let the other man go, stepping back to be in front of Finn and next to Rey and BB-8. 

“Yes, told me to keep an eye out for you.” 

“General Calrissian,” Poe then spoke, not wanting to waste time since they were on the clock. “We’re looking for Exegol.”

Lando froze for a split second, but then he softened with resignation. “Of course you are.” He leaned forward so they could all hear him over the rumble of the treadable. “Luke and I were chasing down Ochi of Bestoon.”

He activates his wristlink, showing a holo of the Jedi assassin. Ochi of Bestoon seemed not quite human, with large black eyes, soft features, and some kind of cybernetic headgear. He didn’t look dangerous at all. 

“A Jedi killer since the Clone Wars. He was searching for Sith relics,” Landon continued. “Evil, old things.” 

“Like the Emperor’s wayfinder.” Poe eyes him. 

“That’s it,” Lando confirmed, switching the holo display to a pyramidal object. “Only two were made, and Ochi bragged at a cantina that he had a clue to the wayfinder’s location. That he had its coordinates inscribed.” 

“Inscribed _where_?” Elektra questioned. 

“That’s the question, kiddo,” Lando eyes her. “We chased Ochi halfway across the galaxy to here. When we got to his ship, it was abandoned. No clue. No wayfinder.” 

“Why’d you stay?” Rey knitted her eyebrows together. 

“The desert helps you forget,” Lando said, and sadness tinged his voice. The cabin jerked as the treadable lurched over a boulder. “First Order went after us—the leaders from the old wars. They took our kids.” His gaze grew distant. “My girl wasn’t even old enough to talk. Far as I know, she’s a Stormtrooper now.” 

Finn’s face turned grim. Elektra didn’t have to look at him to know. 

“They turned our kids into our enemies,” Lando said in a defeated voice. “My girl. Ben and Bre. To kill the spirit of the Rebellion for good.” 

Rey, Poe, and Finn all lock eyes before shifting them to Elektra who dropped her gaze down to her boots. Ripping children away from their homes and pressing them into service wasn’t only about filling ranks. It was about crushing the opposition’s spirit. Because wars weren’t fought with just ships and weapons, but with grit and resolve. That’s why Leia was always talking about hope. It was as essential to victory as good supply lines or reliable intel. 

“Is his ship still here?” Elektra’s voice was now small, like a child waking their parent up during the night and not wanting to get in trouble for it. 

“It’s out in the desert, where he left it.” 

“We’re going to need to search it again.” Rey says. 

The treadable lurched to a halt. A familiar screaming sound pierced the air. TIE fighters. They peek out from the entrance portal and spot them gliding along the horizon. 

The First Order’s reach now extended throughout the galaxy, which was why they’d run into a Stormtrooper even here. That meant Kylo could have backup troops on the ground in the space of an hour. Maybe less. Those TIEs could be an advanced unit, scouting on the Supreme Leader’s behalf. Come to think of it, Kylo had certainly deployed scouts and probe droids everywhere already. She’d sensed how desperate he was to find her. 

“I got a bad feeling about this.” Lando sighed. “Ochi’s ship is growing rust out past Lurch Canyon. It’s the only clue I’ve got. Go.” 

“Thank you, General.” Poe nodded, tumbling out of the treadable with BB-8, Finn, C-3PO, and Rey following. 

Chewie moaned mournfully at Lando and Lando reached for his arm and squeezed, as though saying goodbye. “You too, Chewie.” 

“Mom needs pilots.” 

“You know my flying days are long gone, kiddo. But do me a favor, give Leia my love.”

“You should give it to her yourself. She misses you.” Elektra gave him another hug. “Thank you, Uncle Lando.” 

Lando was practically her family, having been friends with her father since his days of dawning the surname Solo and meeting through a woman named Qi’ra. He was there to see her grow up a few times with Ben but mostly kept away to be with his own family until one day, he stopped. Now she knew why, and it hurt her. 

“Anything for you, kiddo.” Lando held her tight one last time before she left.

The treadable had taken them across the valley to the other end of the festival grounds, far away from the tent where they’d encountered the Stormtrooper. Now they just had to find transportation to the canyon Lando had mentioned. 

“There!” Poe points. “Those speeders!” They all sprinted toward a group of parked skimmers. 

Some of the skimmers were empty and several others were loaded with goods. Rey rolled beneath one of the skimmers, ripped open a panel, and quickly set about rewiring. Years of scavenging taught her a few tricks. 

“No need to worry,” C-3PO said, finally catching up. “I made it.” 

An older Aki-Aki with a missing trunk began running toward them, yelling and waving his huge calloused hands. Undaunted, Rey did the same to a second speeder. 

“We gotta go!” Poe hops up into the one speeder, Finn and C-3PO joining. 

Elektra grabbed the tiller of the first skimmer, Rey, Chewie, and BB-8 climbing in after her, and she gunned the engine. The old Aki-Aki screamed insults at their backs as they raced away. The desert flew by around them, a sea of wind rippled sand interspersed with islands of layered buttes that scared the sky. It was beautiful, in its way. 

The skimmer jerked sideways with an impact, Finn smelled the blaster scorching as more laser bolts missed, sailing past them. The First Order had found them. Two treadspeeders pursued them, each one carrying two Troopers. Their treads kicked up sand in their wakes as they closed fast. 

Finn and C-3PO clung to the steering vane as Poe began evasive maneuvers, swerving back and forth to make them as difficult a target as possible. Off to their right, running parallel, Elektra was doing the same. Netted bundles of goods swung around in the vargo basket, threatening to spill. Finn yanked out his blaster and started firing, but Poe’s veering made his shot go wide. 

Behind Elektra, Chewie’s luck with his bowcaster was just as terrible. Still their shots were making it dangerous for the First Order speeders to close the distance, so Finn kept at it. Gradually, he sensed a rhythm to Poe’s maneuvering, and he timed his shots, and anticipated Poe’s swerve. Right before he pulled the trigger, the rear passengers of each treadspeeder launched into the air with jetpacks. 

“Oh! They fly now!” C-3PO said. 

Finn stares at Poe. “They _fly_ now?!”

Poe gripped the tiller. “They fly now,” he echoed, because of course they did. 

They peeled off, Elektra angling right with Rey, Chewie, and BB-8 toward a dust grain farm. Poe steered Finn and C-3PO leftward into a narrow rocky canyon. 

The canyon closed in around them. Poe’s driving took them so close to the walls that Finn could have reached out and scraped them with the top of his blaster. 

“Did we lose them?” Poe hollered. 

Finn searched their surroundings. Just sand and outcroppings and walls as far as the eye could see. “Looks like it.” 

“Excellent job, sir!” C-3PO shouted. But he spoke too soon because the prow of a treadspeeder cornered a butte and came screaming toward them, firing. “Terrible job, sir!” 

Poe laid into the throttle, but the skimmer didn’t have any more to give. Finn resumed firing with his blaster, calmer now and letting his instincts guide him. A shot landed, the treadspeeder jerking sideways but continued the chase in the blink of an eye. Finn hadn’t damaged it at all. 

The treadspeeder had shields. 

Emboldened, the Trooper lifted his blaster and fired. Finn hit the deck just in time as the shot impacted a bundle of dried goods, which blacked to smoke. He was about to jump to his feet and fire back, but right as his nose was a long coiled rope with large metal hooks on each end. They stuck to the magnetized floor, a nice feature for holding down cargo. He muscled one away from the floor, lifted it, threw it toward the speeder. 

The hook landed on the ground. Just as he’d hoped, the speeder drove right over it. The hook punctured the rubberized tread, caught, and held. The rope at Finn’s feet uncoiled at an alarming rate as it wound around the Trooper’s tread. He grabs the second hook and secured it to the pole, making sure it held tight. 

“Poe,” he warned. 

The pilot turned, saw the hook wrapped around the vane. 

The treadspeeder was eating up their rope. It went taut; the skimmer jerked, Poe angling the rudder sharply left, pushing them into an impossible right turn. They cornered so hard it felt as though Finn’s cheeks were struggling to stay on his face. The rope remained taut between them. The treadspeeder skidded in an arc around the fulcrum of Poe’s hairpin turn, sand flying everywhere and finally slammed into the side of the canyon; exploding into a ball of fire and dust. 

“Wooo!” Finn yelled.

Chewie fired doggedly at the treadspeeder with his bowcaster and Rey shot at the jet Troopers, with the blaster Han gave her, who began firing charges to the ground in front of their skimmer. Elektra yanked the tiller, turning the skimmer at the last moment, barely dodging an explosion. She ducked away from the ensuing debris cloud even as she dodged again, turning away from the treadspeeder. Good thing the controls on this skimmer were sensitive, but she still found it necessary to anticipate, reacting a split second sooner than should be humanly possible. It was taking all her concentration. 

Rey had let the Force fill her, firing several times in a quick succession at the treadspeeder. Her shots hit, but they did no damage. “The front shields are up!” 

BB-8 began to beep excitedly about something he’d found. 

“Not now, BB-8!”

Elektra gazes back, seeing one of the droid’s compartments opening, his welding arm shooting out towards a metal canister and pecking at it. Before anything could escape the now compromised canister, BB-8 body bumped it hard enough to disengage the maglocks and sent it flying into the air behind them. 

It released a cloud of smoke as it fell, a bright, sunshiny yellow, just like the colored smoke at the festival. Opaque as a wall. 

The Stormtrooper driving the speeder couldn’t react fast enough to avoid it. The cloud blinded him, and he panicked, swerving left and launching up the slope of a rock. The speeder shot high, exposing a fuel tank that was unprotected by its forward shields. Elektra withdrew her blaster pistol, taking the shot and fired once, the treadspeeder exploding as BB-8 beeped smugly. 

“Never underestimate a droid!” She smirked

One down. Two to go. 

Laser blast heated the air by Rey’s ear as she ducked from the one jet Trooper, Chewie shooting at him and landed square. The Trooper bulleted to the ground and the Wookie roared. 

One to go. But neither Rey nor Chewie could spot him anywhere. The remaining jet Trooper had disappeared. 

Elektra saw a lump in the distance. No, a ship. It hunkered atop a sandstone bluff, overlooking a vast, windswept valley interspersed with dark sand like blots of spilled ink. The ship’s hull was blasted by sand and wind, its landing struts drowning in small dunes. 

“Ochi’s ship!” She smiled, stirring the skiff toward the abandoned freighter. 

Poe’s skimmer appeared over the rise. Everyone seemed haggard and windblown, but were otherwise fine. 

“El!” Finn called. “You get them all?” 

Charges exploded all around them, throwing them to the sand and blowing their speeders to smithereens. 

Everyone whipped up their weapons and fired; Elektra wasn’t sure which of them hit, but the jet Trooper spiraled out of the sky and slammed into a cliff. His jetpack detonated, shooting him into yet another bluff and out of sight. 

Poe tried to stand, but he began descending into the black sand that they all laid on. “The hell is this?” His movement only made him sink farther and faster. 

“Sinking fields!” Rey said, sinking up to her hips. The Sinking Fields of Jakku had taken many an unwary soul. “Try to grab something!”

But there was nothing to grab onto. Chewie called out, panicked and tried his best to get to Elektra. Han’s last words running through his mind: _Chewie, just keep her safe. Alright._

C-3PO dropped all the way to his recharge coupling. “Will this agony ever end?”

“Come on!” Poe shouts before going under. 

BB-8’s round body spun wildly in the mire, to no avail. Within the space of a breath, the little droid disappeared beneath the surface. 

“BB-8!” Elektra yelled. 

Tears filled her eyes as she panic-thrashed against the sand. Elektra was going to lose them all. Not to a dark and powerful enemy, but to a natural phenomenon. 

Rey tried to shout but she went under with C-3PO and Chewie was the next. 

Elektra locked eyes with Finn, his face was stricken. “El!” He says, “I never told you, I’m—” He dropped, the sand reaching his shoulders. 

“What?” She cried. 

Finn slid down to his chin. “El!” 

_No!_ “Finn!” She screams, throwing her arm out in an attempt to channel the Force to bring him back—to bring all her friends back from under, but it was no use. She was too nervous, too stressed, and scared. 

Elektra held her breath as sand covered her mouth, her nose, her eyes. Grit filled her ears, scraped her skin. The world went dark. 

General Leia was in the command center, getting briefed by Rose Tico on the status of their tiny but growing fleet. Sparks were flying everywhere, and she was about to ask for status updates on a few specific ships, but Snap Wexley hurried toward her, interrupting them. 

“General, we’re getting reports of a raid at the Festival of Ancestors.” 

Of course they were. Of course the First Order had found her people. “This mission is everything. It cannot fail.” Then her voice was a little plaintive, she asked, “Any word from Bre?”

He shook his head. “The Falcon’s not responding.”

At the look on Leia’s face, Rose said to Snap,” Do you have to say it like that?” 

“Like . . . what?” 

“Do me a personal favor,” Leia says to him. “Be optimistic.” 

“Yes, ma’am,” said Snap, forcing his features into bland pleasantness. “This is . . . this is terrific. You’re not gonna believe how well this is gonna turn out. It’s gonna be great.” 

Leia resisted rolling her eyes. “Major Wexley, requiring optimism doesn’t mean hiding the truth.” 

“Yeah, what aren’t you telling us?” Rose demanded. 

Snap shuffled his feet. “The raid at the Festival . . . General Leia . . . Our eyes on the ground say it’s the Knights of Ren.” 

Sand was scraping Poe’s eyelids, shoving into his ears, up his nostrils. Any moment now, he’d lose control and inhale a mouthful of grit. The sand would scrape away at his lungs in the painful seconds it would take to choke to death. And just when he thought he couldn’t hold his breath a moment more, his feet met air. His torso broke through a layer of packed sand, and he dropped, hitting the ground hard. 

BB-8 dropped after him, plunking down just a few meters away. Poe gasped to replenish his lungs, shaking sand out of his hair, blinking rapidly to clear the grit from his eyes. He looked around; BB-8 was right besides him. It was too dark to see well, but they had fallen into some kind of tunnel made of hard packed sand. A gaping dark maw marked what might be an adjoining tunnel. Hopefully, he’d find the rest of his friends there. He got to his feet, dusted himself off, and stepped toward the maw. “Ellie! Rey! Finn!” He calls out. 

“You didn’t say my name, sir, but I’m alright.” C-3PO responded from a few meters away. 

A squelching noise made Poe turn; it was Rey, her legs dangling from the ceiling. He hurried over to keep her from dropping as hard as he had. After he lowered her to the ground, she bent over, coughing. 

“Rey? You alright?” 

She nodded, her face covered in sand. “Where’s Elektra?” 

“Where’s Finn? And Chewie?” Poe said. 

Chewbacca dropped through the ceiling and thunked to the ground. Poe winces at the impact, but Chewie shook himself off, seemingly unscathed as he began searching around for Elektra. 

Finn appeared in the entrance to the adjoining tunnel. Sand peppered his black hair. “I’m good. What is this place?” 

C-3PO doddered toward them. “This isn’t the afterlife, is it?” He asks. “Are droids allowed here?”

“Where’s Elektra?” Rey repeats, gazing all around. “Elektra?!” 

“Ellie!” Poe shouts as well, Chewie joining in. 

Finn focused, listening and sensed movement from above. He looks, seeing sand sprinkling down and he steps back, seeing the girl’s shoulders breaking through the ceiling and he holds out his arms as the rest of her body breaks through. He caught her, bending his knees on impact to cushion the blow and held her tight to his chest. It reminded him of when she got hurt trying to board the Falcon back on Jakku and how he had cradled her body, running her on the ship from getting hurt. 

The girl coughed, squinting her eyes and staring up at him. “Finn?” 

“You okay?” 

Elektra nods, her mind still erratic. “I tried to use the Force, but I panicked.” 

“It’s okay. We’re okay.” He informs her, slowly placing her onto her feet. 

Poe felt like he could _truly_ breathe again, now that everyone was accounted for. He’d had it with people dying on his watch. “Thought we were goners.” 

“We might still be, sir,” C-3PO reminded him helpfully. 

“Which way out?” Finn asked, looking around. 

Elektra unhooked her lightsaber and turned it on. Its blade lit the walls around them in soft blue, and Poe could feel its hum in the back of his throat as she waved it around, studying the walls. 

Poe reached for his glowrod, turning it on like how Elektra turned on the lightsaber, its glow compared with the lightsaber’s was like that of a moon to a sun.

She turns, looking backwards. “This way.” She headed off. “We need to hurry.” 

Poe flips his glowrod around in his left hand, pointing it forwards and begins following after the girl without a second thought. Poe had learned that when Elektra said things with a determined face and an unwavering voice, a fellow ought to just follow. 

The sand burrow made for easy traveling with its flat, hard packed ground and cooler air which was good because Elektra had no idea how long it would take to find an exit. She only knew that a strange instinct drew her forward. She should have let the Force guide her when she and her friends were sinking into the sand. Calling on the Force was easy but she needed it to be her first instinct; she realized, and even her mother observed, that her formative years in the First Order has taught her to look for tactile solutions to impossible problems. Leia thought that could be why Anakin’s lightsaber had called out to her daughter, to make the Force inside of her awaken after years of suppressing it—severing it. Like how Luke did during his exile. 

BB-8 beeped a question.

“I do not want to know what made these tunnels,” Poe answered. 

“Judging by the circumference of these tunnel walls,” C-3PO begins, “any number of deadly species could—”

“I said I do not want to know,” Poe repeated. “ _Not._ ”

The tunnel curved around, and Elektra followed. “So what was it?” She asked Finn, mostly to keep her mind off of C-3PO’s words. 

“What?” He looks at her. 

“When you were sinking in the sand, you said, ‘I never told you’.” 

Finn avoided her gaze. “I’ll tell you later,” 

“You mean when Poe’s not here?” Poe steps up, gazing at Finn. 

“Yeah,” Finn mocks, nodding. “Mhmm.”

“We’re gonna die in a sand burrow, and we’re all keeping secrets?” Poe goes in between them, leading the way now and Elektra just watched Poe with wide eyes, knowing he was jealous. 

BB-8 warbled at something ahead, which brought them up short. Something metallic flashed in the glow of Elektra’s lightsaber as they peered closer. 

“What’s that?” Poe said, aiming his light on it. 

“A speeder?” Finn questioned. 

“An old one,” Rey replies. Its steering vane was bent at an impossibly angle, and it was outdated by at least a decade, but the dry, windless tunnel had largely preserved the acceleration module and repulsorlift. 

“Perhaps we’ll find the driver,” C-3PO said. 

BB-8 told C-3PO what he thought of that. 

“Yeah, I think dead, too,” Poe agreed. 

Chewie complained that he was getting thirsty. 

C-3PO waddled over to the speeder’s hood ornament and bent over, peering close. “It’s a hex charm.” 

“A what?” 

“A common emblem of Sith loyalists!” C-3PO said, delighted. 

“Sith.” Elektra uttered. 

“This was Ochi’s?” Poe looks to her. 

“Uncle Luke sensed it,” Elektra steps up, eyeing the hex charm, something familiar about it. “Ochi never left this place.” 

“And he ended up down here.” Rey finished.

Poe thinks about it. “He was headed for his ship. Same thing happened to us, happened to him.” 

Elektra stepped towards the one cave, heading up to inspect the area.

“So how did Ochi get out?” Finn wondered, looking around for an exit. 

“He didn’t.” Calls Elektra’s voice, at her feet as a pile of old bones. 

They joined her side. 

“No, he didn’t.” Finn nods. 

“Bones,” Poe covered his mouth with his hand, looking away in disgust, gagging. “I don’t like bones.”

Ochi’s speeder had fallen into the tunnel, and either he’d died on impact, or he’d injured himself so badly that he’d died slowly, trapped and alone. 

“Bones? Never a good sign.” C-3PO chimes in from next to Finn. 

BB-8 warbled that he’d found something and Rey moved next to him, setting down her quarterstaff as he extended a tube from his tool compartment. He began blowing away some nearby sand and gradually, a long and metallic object appeared with a still sharp blade. 

Rey picked it up, gripping its cold handle, hearing distant echoes of screams. “Horrible things have happened with this,” she murmured. 

Poe saw the dagger and the runes, studying the blade’s etchings. “It has writing on it.”

“Perhaps I can translate.” C-3PO said cheerfully, taking it from Rey. “Oh. The location of the wayfinder has been inscribed upon this dagger. It’s the clue that Master Luke was looking for.”

They all practically knocked heads trying to get a closer look. 

“And?” 

“Where’s the wayfinder?”

“I’m afraid I cannot tell you.” C-3PO rotates to stare at them. 

Poe gaped at him. “Twenty point three fazillion languages, and you can’t read that?” 

“Oh, I have read it, sir!” The droid enthused. “I know exactly where the wayfinder is. Unfortunately, it’s written in the runic language of the Sith.” 

“So what?” Rey stood, grabbing her quarterstaff. 

“He can’t translate it.” Elektra states, feeling herself getting slightly upset and annoyed. 

C-3PO nods. “Miss Bre is correct. My programming forbids me from translating it. I am physically incapable!” 

“So you’re telling us the one time we need you to talk, you can’t?” Poe shoots back. 

“Irony, sir.” C-3PO began stepping backwards, displaying the silvery, scalloped edge design and a hefty curved crossguard that protected a leather wrapped handle to them. “I believe the rule was passed by the Senate of the Old Repub—”

A hulking shadow moved behind him. Something huge, and as Elektra sensed, in great pain. Rey lifts her quarterstaff, Poe and Finn their blaster pistols, and Chewie with his bowcaster as BB-8 squeals, wheeling back behind Elektra’s legs. The thing in the shadows manifested into a serpent with a segmented body and six pairs of wicked eyes, snarling. C-3PO turned to see it and dropped the dagger into the dirt and screamed, “Serpent!” as the snake opened its massive jaw to reveal sharp fangs dripping venom. It drew back into a striking position. 

The Force should always be Elektra’s first instinct so she reached out to the bowcaster to lower it, her eyes glued to the snake’s huge fangs. She did the same to Poe’s blaster and handed her lightsaber off to Finn, unsure exactly of what she was doing. 

“El,” Finn protested. 

It was terrifying. Elektra could sense its rage, its hunger. But she also sensed great pain. The creature—a vexis—rose even higher and hiss roared, blowing her hair back as she slowly made way for it. Holding her hands up in surrender, letting it know that she wasn’t trying to pose as a threat. 

“Finn,” Poe whispers. 

“Shh.” 

Elektra narrowed her eyes as she approached the serpent's body, seeing a giant gash running crossing several segments. Carefully, slowly, she climbed over the vexis’s curved body until she stood within its coils. If it decided to kill her, all it had to do was squeeze. 

“I’m gonna blast it.” 

“Don’t blast it,” Finn replies, his gaze fixed on the snake and tightening his grip on the lightsaber. 

Elektra kneels, eyes still trained on the vexis as she reached for the wound. It hissed, and she hesitated. _When something’s trying to hurt you, it’s usually hurt by something bigger,_ Leia had told her and she figured a grain farmer had probably rolled a tilling blade right across this creature’s home, flaying it open. Heart in her throat, she stretched her hand forward, touching the serpent’s cool segments. 

She was acting on pure instinct now. Elektra closed her eyes, reaching for the Force. 

Whenever she fought Kylo for the first time, or leapt through the jungles of Ajan Kloss, she channeled the Force, using it for her own advantage in some way. But this would call for a different technique, something she’d learned from the Jedi texts. This time, she would _give_. 

A hum resonated in her chest as she gathered something inside her, offered it up to the serpent. Her own energy. Her own life. It was part of the Force, too, and she didn’t have to keep it all to herself. 

She felt the vexis calming. Its pain was receding. 

After a moment, she dared to open her eyes and the wound was closed. The vexis lowered its head to hers. It was so huge. It could devour her in a single gulp. It’s tongue flicked out, and it hissed, blowing her hair back. A kiss of sorts. 

The snake uncoiled from around her, leaving her free. It slithered away into the dark, forging a new path in the hard packed sand as easily as if it were an eel swimming through water. When it disappeared, they could see a clear circle of sky. 

Poe and Finn exchanged a look as BB-8 rolled up to Elektra, seeing her massaging her right hand and beeps softly. 

“I just transferred a bit of life. Force energy, from me to him.” 

BB-8 whirred. 

“You would have done the same.”

Chewie steps forwards, retrieving up the dagger and placing it into his bag before Finn turns off the lightsaber and hands it back to Elektra. Poe rushes out of their new entrance to the light of day, C-3PO, Finn, and Chewie hot on his trail. Rey helped Elektra up as her very bones ached with weariness, and unaccountably, her hand stung. Healing the vexis had felt so normal, so natural, and right, but it had cost her. 

The tunnel dumped them even closer to Ochi’s rusty freighter. It perched atop a huge rock platform, an island of stability in a sea of shifting mires. Elektra and her friends climbed toward it. 

“We cannot possibly fly in that old wreck!” C-3PO protested. He struggled to keep up over the jutting rocks. 

“We gotta keep moving,” Poe urged from just ahead. “Find someone who can translate that dagger. Like a _helpful_ droid.” 

“I suggest we return to the Millennium Falcon at once.” 

“They’ll be waiting at the Falcon.” 

“Yeah, they’ll send us to the pits of Griq,” Finn speaks up. 

“Yeah. And use you as a target droid.” Poe added. 

“You both make excellent points at times.” 

Elektra frowned. Finn and Poe were having a bit of fun with the droid but it was true that the Falcon was probably in First Order hands by now. Chewie had locked it down tight, but the First Order would get past all their security precautions eventually. It was possible she’d never see her ship again. Her father’s ship. 

A familiar presence hit her like a thunderclap, and she froze in place. 

“Elektra?” Rey turned to see what had made her pause.

Finn did the same. “What is it?”

Their faces were still dusty from their tour of the tunnels, and as usual their kindness and concern were smeared all over their features. 

“I’ll be right behind you.” She said gently. “It’s okay.”

Finn frowned as she descended the rocks and sprinted out onto the wide, flat stretch of desert. He helps Rey up onto the rock as Poe hits the freighter’s hatch release, and the access ramp comes down. The two of them followed Poe, Chewie, and the droids into a dark central hold choking in sand. 

The hold was filled with junk, the walls remained mostly open to the ship’s inner workings; emergency atmo tanks, a particle shield booster, endless wires and ducts and latched whose uses remained a mystery, though Finn bet Poe or Rey would know what they were. 

“Let’s get those converters fired up.” Poe said, heading toward the cockpit, pushing cobwebs and junk out of the way. 

‘This ship is filthy!” C-3PO said, and Finn had to agree. 

While Poe started hitting switches, Rey peered inside a cargo box. It was filled with blaster pistols. She looked around, noting several other boxes. Were they _all_ filled with weapons? 

Lights flickered on around her. The floor began to vibrate as the power plant cranked to life. 

“Look at that,” Poe said. 

Finally, some luck. But they couldn’t leave without Elektra, who still hadn’t entered the ship. 

“Where is she?” Finn asked no one in particular. He hurried to the cockpit viewport and searched the vast desert. There. A tiny, wind whipping figure. She’d managed to travel quite a distance. 

“Chewie,” Finn said, thinking of the Wookie’s long stride and superior speed. “Tell El we gotta go.” 

Chewie moaned assent, then headed out to fetch her. A moment later the Wookie appeared in view of the viewport, but he promptly disappeared behind a rock formation on his way toward the desert floor and Elektra. 

Elektra squared her shoulders, her attention drawn to the black mote on the horizon, flying fast and low, approaching her. It was a TIE fighter. _His_ TIE fighter. 

Kylo Ren sensed her before he saw her. As he flew his TIE whisper along the flat desert, she was a bright presence in his mind, practically growing with determination and ferocity. His chest pulled. It was the same feeling he’d had when he’d face their father for the last time. Snoke had understood their dynamic but he didn’t, not until now. Elektra was his light and because of that, he couldn’t shake the memory of their father’s hand against his cheek, of those eyes full of love and understanding. But with knowing she was his light, that only meant that he was her dark. 

And there she stood, barely a dot against the ocher sand, her facing him down. She was terrified; he could sense it like he could sense the sweat dampening his gloves. Yet despite her terror, she was unwavering, ready and waiting. 

Elektra unhooked her lightsaber, lighting it as she saw the TIE getting closer. Healing the vexis had exhausted her, but it had opened up new avenues of the Force to her. Something about giving and taking, about a more perfect oneness than she’d understood before. The Force thrums in her blood, filling her limbs with readiness. 

Sensing it was the right time, she turned away, lowering herself into a fighting lunge. Elektra glanced back. He was close enough that she could see the shape of his helmet through the cockpit viewport. 

“What the hell is she doing?” Poe was curious, watching her from the viewport. “Where is Chewie?” 

Finn peered out of the cockpit viewport. It was hard to make out details but it seemed like she was crouched, her lightsaber lit. He should be out there, helping her . . . 

Then, the strangest thing happened. In yearning to help her, in reaching for her, he sensed something. A danger. A presence. “It’s Ren.”

Rey felt it too. 

Finn and her headed out the ramp, going for the outcropping Chewbacca had disappeared behind, but they stopped short and hunkered down when Rey heard footsteps. They peered around the rock, seeing Chewie had been captured. 

Manacles circled his furry wrists. Tall figured with dark armor and strange weapons shoved him forward, toward a handful of Stormtroopers and their transports. Malevolence radiated from the dark figured in waves; Finn felt like he was choking on it. 

The Knights of Ren. They could be no one else. 

Finn and Rey needed to come up with a plan but the fact that an entire transport was there, along with the Knights of Ren, it must’ve meant Kylo Ren himself was there. And if Finn’s feeling had been right, they were after Elektra. 

Elektra had started to run, her lightsaber whipping beside her with each stride as she sucked air as she sprinted. She would only pull this off with good speed and a lot of help from the Force, but her training with Rey and Leia was paying off. She was fit and her limbs were strong. Her lungs were capable. More important, her mind was prepared. 

She pressed forward, picking up more speed. The TIE was close now; its scream was bright in her ears. Still not close enough. Her shoulder blades prickled as the ship bore down. Not just yet . . . a few strides more . . . now!

She leapt up and flipped backward, sweeping her legs in an aerial arc. Below her, her brother craned his neck to track her flight. She whipped her lightsaber down at the support pylon, the TIE screaming past in a cloud of choking dust. 

Elektra landed neatly in the sand. Eyes narrowed, ready for anything, she watched the TIE start to wobble. She sensed Kylo’s nervousness as he compensated at the controls. The support pylon buckled, and the left wing clipped the ground. Out of control, the TIE tumbled, wings ripping off their struts. The remaining ball holding Kylo rolled at an impossible speed, leaving a ditch in the sand. Finally, it slammed into an embankment, where it lay still. 

Elektra turned off the lightsaber, hooking it back to her belt. She hoped that her brother was okay, _truly_ , but him trying to get in her way finishing Luke’s mission was something that made her upset. 

“El!” A figure appeared ahead as she headed back towards Ochi’s ship, familiar in his blue pants and flight jacket. Finn. He was joined by Rey. “They got Chewie!” 

A transport lifted into view, its drive thrusters already glowing blue. 

Rey punched the air with her finger. “Chewie’s in there!” 

No. _No, no, no, no_.

Where there had been calm, now there was only terror. It filled her mind, overflowed into pur, hot power. She reached out with the Force, imagined herself grabbing the transport, wrenching it back planetside. It actually slowed. Wobbled in the air. Its engine began to whine. Elektra gritted her teeth. Sweat poured from her forehead. She already let the First Order—let Kylo—take her father away from her. She would not let them take Chewie. 

Kylo yanked off his mask to get some fresh air. He was an idiot. His stomach roiled with this inevitable certainty as he gingerly stepped around the burning wreckage of his TIE. What else did he expect was going to happen when they greeted each other again? A simple hello? No. Elektra only knew that he was after her but she didn’t know why. And with her recent pulls to the dark, of course she’d try and harm him before he could harm her first. If that _had_ been his intention. But it wasn’t. 

He sensed a tug in the Force as he stepped from the billowing smoke into clear air. Far away, Elektra stood in the sand, straining, her arm reaching toward—

A flying transport? And she was succeeding in slowing it down!

But it didn’t matter what or who was inside of the transport, he could sense her fear and impulse; two things that Snoke taught him were shortcuts to the dark side. She was tapping into it, relishing in the power and he knew that he had to stop her. And there was only one way he knew how. He reached out, felt the massive machinery in his mind, yanking it toward himself. 

The transport almost jerked out of her grip, and she peers down, seeing her brother alive and well. He was reaching for Chewie and she could not— _would not_ —let him have him. Chewie was _hers_. She strained to regain control, and she felt the ship lurch in her direction, but it whipped right back. 

Elektra tried to remember her training. _Let the Force guide your actions_ , her mother would say. But thinking of her mother, her training, even for the briefest moment made her lose concentration, and the ship listed again in Kylo’s direction. So Elektra bore down with all strength of her being, grunting. Blood screaming in her ears, and her heart was a massive drum in her chest. She drew on her rage at the First Order, at Snoke, and even at Palpatine. She drew on her terror for Chewie’s life, remembered what it felt like to watch her father Han drop into the abyss at Starkiller Base and seeing Finn laying face down in the snow by the hand of her brother’s lightsaber that she helped him build. 

Elektra opened her mouth in a silent scream and raw power bursts from her fingertips, arcing toward the transport. It was blue lightning, pur Force energy, brighter than a lightsaber, hotter than a sun. It wrapped its deadly, crooked fingers around the ship which jerked sideways for the briefest instant and then exploded into a sickening fireball. 

Elektra stumbles back, gasping for air, as bits of wreckage rained down onto the desert plain. The transport and everyone inside reduced to ashes. 

“ _Chewie!_ ” Her stomach heaved, tears pouring down her cheeks. 

A voice penetrated her haze of guilt-madness: “Ellie!” It was Poe, calling out to her. “We gotta go! They’re coming!” 

He points toward the horizon, and she softly turns. Half a dozen First Order TIEs were quickly approaching as she just stood there, holding out her right hand that had caused the damage, in shock. 

“Elektra, we got to go!” Rey sadly called out, knowing that they couldn’t do more in the situation.

“What have I done?” She whimpered. More tears fell from Elektra’s face as she slowly peered down to her hand in horror then at the bits of wreckage. “Uncle Chewie.” 

“El!” Finn shouts to her. “Come on!” 

Kylo found Elektra’s eyes, seeing the complete and utter terror on her face and the regret in her eyes. She had just demonstrated unbelievable, mind blowing power. Dark power. _Sith_ power. That’s what he wanted to protect her from but from doing it, he only pushed her to use it. And now learning that the Wookie that they both grew up calling Uncle Chewie was in that transport, his heart hurt and mourned. He even sniffled but quickly tried to shrug it off as the First Order came their way; he needed to suck it up, to act tough and put on his mask that told them everything was alright and that he was in charge. 

Elektra had finally convinced her feet to move, staggering across the sand and towards Ochi’s freighter. She hurried towards Rey and Finn, the three of them climbing up towards the ship.


	16. Night Raid

Ochi’s freighter may have been flightworthy, but that didn’t mean it was in good shape. The Legacy had been grounded on Pasaana for years, which meant they didn’t dare take it far until they could hide out for it a bit, do a thorough check of the ship’s systems, and regain their bearings. 

Elektra had shown Poe where to go while Rey sat in the copilot’s seat, providing support as he guided the Legacy into the rings of a large, flowing planet. The rings were made mostly of ice drifts. They reflected plenty of lift from the system’s cool sun, and constantly shed vapor. It was a good hiding spot, one that would confuse most ships’ sensor sweeps; a perfect smuggler move. There was no doubt in Rey’s mind that Han had done this technique before which is how Elektra knew. 

“Ellie,” Poe began, as he set the ship to drift alongside an ice floe but when he saw her face, he changed his mind about whatever he was going to say. “I’ll start some diagnostics with Rey. Why don’t you . . . take a moment?” 

It was the gentlest he’d been with her for a long time, ever since their first official meeting at the Resistance base back on D’Qar. She nodded wordlessly and headed into the central hold, found a cushioned bench near the back, and plunked down. 

_What have I done?_ She asked herself again. 

Fear led to the dark side after all. She’d been fine so long as her fear was tempered by peace and resolve. But the moment she gave into rage and terror . . . Chewbacca was gone. The Falcon was probably gone. Ochi’s dagger was gone. She had ruined everything. 

Her mother would be so disappointed in her when she found out. 

She sniffles, releasing a tear and BB-8 gives her a long, mournful beep. 

C-3PO said, “Poor, poor Chewbacca.”

The tears began again and she couldn’t stop them. Chewie had done so much for her. He raised her and Ben with C-3PO’s help whenever Han left for lone missions and as Leia was struggling to balance her motherly duties with her responsibilities as Minister of State of the New Republic. 

Chewie saving her from that droid when she was six now held irony because she had killed him with the very thing he rescued her from that day. The path to the dark side. 

Finn stepped forward, his face stricken. “El,” 

“I lost control.” She mutters, eyeing her right hand. The hand that had healed the vexis, the hand that tried to save Chewie. The hand that conjured Force lightning, the hand that sent Chewie to his death. 

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“It was.” She replies, unable to look at him. 

“No, it was _Ren_. He made you do it.”

Elektra shot to her feet in an instant, staring at him with her red, stinging, puffy eyes. “You saw what happened. That power came from me.” She quivers, blinking out a few more tears. “I should’ve known.”

“Known what?” Finn inquires, knowing that there was something that she was holding back. “You can tell me.” He waited patiently, no trace of judgment on his face. 

Elektra hadn’t been able to tell Rey or her mother Leia. But maybe she could tell Finn. They both have been through so much together, especially in the First Order, it made sense to find comfort in him rather than anyone else aboard the ship. Asides from BB-8. 

She mumbled, “I, uh, a vision. Of the throne of the Sith. I saw who was on it.” 

Finn’s eyes narrowed. “Kylo?” 

Elektra shook her head, inhaling sharply. “No . . . _me_.”

Finn’s mouth parted. 

She looks away, unable to look at him any longer. Elektra wished she could run, from Finn’s inevitable disappointment, the shock in his voice when he finally spoke next. But on this tiny freighter, there was nowhere to go. 

Poe stepped into the hold from the cockpit. His face was haggard, but he seemed as determined as ever. Rey was right at his heels, her face holding a delicate smile as she headed over to Elektra and made sure that she was alright before wiping away a few of her salty tears with her thumbs. 

“We’ve only got eight hours left. So what are we gonna do?” Poe eyes the hold. 

“What can we do?” Finn said, shrugging. “We gotta go back to base.” 

Poe was shaking his head. “We don’t have time to go back. We are not giving up. If we do that, Chewie died for nothing.” 

Poe was right. Elektra was selfish to wallow in misery. She still had the Resistance to think about, their plan to find the Sith fleet. Chewie would want her to press on. 

“Poe, Chewie had the dagger!” Finn states. 

“Well, then we gotta find another way.” 

“Well, there isn’t. That was the only clue to the wayfinder thing, and it’s gone.” 

“So true.” C-3PO said sadly. “The inscription lives only in my memory now.”

Finn and Poe’s heads whipped toward C-3PO, and they pinned him with a collective glare.

“Hold on,” Poe points to him. “The inscription that was on the dagger is in your memory?”

“Yes, Master Poe. But the translation from a forbidden language cannot be retrieved. That is short of a complete redactive memory bypass.”

“A complete _what_?” Finn confusingly asked.

“It’s a terribly dangerous and sinful act, performed on unwitting droids by dregs and criminals.”

Finn brightened. “Let’s do that!” 

Poe’s eyes were narrowed in thought. “I know a black market droidsmith.”

“Black market droidsmith!” C-3PO exclaimed. 

Poe seemed almost apologetic when he added, “But he’s on Kijimi.” 

Finn looks at him. “What’s wrong with Kijimi?”

Poe seemed hesitant to answer. At Finn’s look of insistence, he said, “I had a little bad luck on Kijimi . . .” Poe sighed, shaking his head. “But if this mission fails, it’s all been for nothing. All we’ve done, all this time.” 

Finn was nodding. “We’re all in this,” his eyes then gaze over to where Elektra stood with Rey. “Until the end.” 

He then holds his hand out to her and even after what she had done and what she told him, Finn still trusted her. He didn’t blame her, didn’t yell at her. Neither did Rey or Poe. Elektra began to wonder if this is how Kylo felt when she was still with him, still treating him as a person and that thought made her even more sad. 

Elektra reaches out, taking Finn’s hand and stands next to him. She grabs Rey’s hand with her left. “For Chewie.” 

Finn then extended his other hand to Poe who just eyed it. “Hands?” 

“Hands.”

Poe takes it into his, firming grasping. “For Chewie.” He nods towards Elektra. 

C-3PO teetered over to them and valiantly attempted to join hands with Poe and Rey despite the fact that he didn’t have full articulation of his elbows or adequate spatial awareness. 

They held hands for a minute, Poe announcing “To Kijimi” and let go to head for the cockpit to finish diagnostics. Rey and Finn followed. Elektra was about to go after them and make herself useful, but BB-8 caught her eye as he rolled away toward the corner, where a rusty green droid, as lifeless and cold as a piece of scrap, laid collecting cobwebs. It was tiny, with a conical head and an unicycle mechanism. The only droids Elektra had ever encountered that were so small used strictly for maintenance and janitorial work. This one seemed different. It had a motivator compartment and a higher end transmitter array. 

BB-8 opened a side panel on the tiny, rusty droid, plugged in, and began to charge him. Elektra wasn’t sure how well that could work, but she couldn’t blame BB-8 for trying to give a little of his own life force to help another like how she had. 

Suddenly, the little droid was stirring to life. “B-b-battery charged!” He announced. He tried to roll forward but his uniwheel squealed in protest. He stared up at BB-8 in awe and wonder, whirring at the larger droid in a worshipful tone. “He-hello!” 

BB-8 warbled back, telling him to follow. Together, they rolled toward Elektra, the tiny droid’s wheel squeaking with each rotation. 

“Hello-hello!” The droid said to her. “I’m D-O.” 

“Hello,” Elektra replies, reaching out to touch him, but D-O recoiled, cowering in the corner. 

“No-no-no thank you.” 

She respected his wishes, withdrawing her hand. He needed lubricant badly, but Elektra didn’t see droid maintenance supplies anywhere in the hold. 

BB-8 beeped a question. 

“Looks like someone treated him badly,” Elektra answered and Little D-O cocked his head at her. “It’s okay. You’re with us now.” 

General Hux took a deep breath before stepping onto the bridge of the Steadfast. The Millennium Falcon had been commandeered. He himself has supervised as three TIEs towed it into the incineration hangar. 

But it would not be enough. 

Ren was not currently aboard, but Allegiant General Pryde was, and he had the ear and favor of Ren. Whatever Hux reported to him, and how it was said, would be relayed in exact detail. Hux had one card to play. He had to play it carefully. 

He squared his shoulders and strode in as though he had every confidence in the galaxy. Bridge officers ignored him as he headed toward General Pryde and joined him on the upper walkway. A janitor droid scurried out of his way. 

We recovered the scavenger’s ship,” Hux began. “But she got away.”

General Pryde said nothing. 

“Under command of the _Knights of Ren_ ,” Hux said pointedly, “we suffered losses. Troops, TIEs, a transport was destroyed—”

“I’ve seen the report,” Pryde snapped. “Is that all?”

He often left little things out of his reports. Hux justified these redactions to his superiors by citing security concerns. But really, it was for moments like this. Hux needed to see Pryde’s reaction, understand the older man's response in real time. If Pryde were allowed to read it while behind a desk, in the privacy of his office, Hux would never know how the news landed. 

“There was another transport in the desert,” Hux said. “It brought back a valuable prisoner.” 

Pryde’s stride hitched. The Resistance forces had been greatly depleted at Crait. Anyone left was immensely valuable. “Prisoner?” 

Hux led Pryde to the door of a holding cell just outside the incineration hangar. The shiny black floor around it was peppered with sand and dust from the planet Pasaana. He signaled to the Stormtrooper that they were ready. 

The door _swicked_ away, revealing an impossibly tall and hairy creature in manacles, surrounded by more Troopers. When it saw Hux and Pryde, it moaned loudly, revealing long teeth. Its breath smelled like something had crawled up into its throat and died.

“The beast used to fly with Han Solo,” Hux said to Pryde, standing between him and the disgusting creature. 

The Wookie roared, blowing Hux’s hair forwards. The general managed to keep from recoling, but he felt his cheeks quiver with the effort. 

“Take it to Interrogation Six,” Pryde said dismissively. 

Kijimi City was an ancient, one grand city that had been slowly carved into a snowy mountainside over the course of centuries. Its cobblestone streets twisted at steep, narrow angles, and slippery steps limned in ice and snow had caused more than one unwary person to regret their visit. 

Poe hurried down an alleyway, the hood of his coat tight against his face, his breath frosting the air. Snow flurried down, making every step slick and dangerous. He was lightheaded, his heart pattered fast, and he felt a tight headache coming on. He knew from experience that a body adjusted to the altitude eventually, but he hoped they wouldn’t be around long enough. In the meantime, he couldn’t afford to get altitude sickness. As he traveled, he took lots of slow deep breaths to give his body as much oxygen to work with as possible. 

It was nighttime, but like all large cities, Kijimi never quite slept. Oil lamps, sodium sconces, and the occasional cantina window pooled light onto the flagstone streets. He tried to avoid them all, sticking to darkness. Because First Order Troopers were everywhere. 

Poe watched from the shadows as a group of Troopers pounded on a door, demanding entry. Down the street a way, he could see a small family huddling beneath an overhang, trying to disappear into the stone. 

Poe entered the Thieves’ Quarter, and the alleys narrowed. A noxious stink made him wince. The sewer was backed up. Which meant one of the criminal syndicates had taken over this territory. It broke his heart a little. His memories of Kijimi were a mixed bag at best, but he hated to see the place even more run down, strangled by First Order occupation. It was happening in the Yavin system, on Corellia, and now even distant worlds like Pasaana weren’t safe. The First Order burned away everything that made the galaxy light and beautiful. Kijimi, like so many others, was now a shadow of what it used to be. 

Poe finally reached his friends, who had been waiting for him in a dark alcove. Elektra, Rey, Finn, and even C-3PO wore long, hooded coats, which Poe had liberated from the Opranko Guildhouse. The protocol droid had informed Poe that his internal thermostat made a coat unnecessary, but thanked him nonetheless. Only BB-8 and his tiny new friend went undisguised. 

“They’re everywhere.” Poe told them all. “I know what we should do.” 

“So do I.” C-3PO replies, too loudly. “We should leave.” 

“Clam it,” Poe ordered. “Follow me.” 

Poe led them through the twisted streets, up a flight of stairs, all the while doing his best to avoid Trooper squads and lookouts. D-O began squeaking loudly and C-3PO picked him up, cradling him under his arm as Rey pulled his coat close; shrouding them both. 

They were nearly to their destination. “Alright,” Poe whispered. “Let’s head down this—”

The top of a blaster barrel was suddenly boring into his skull. Poe closed his eyes. He’d been afraid of this. No matter how sneaky you were, on Kijimi someone else was sneakier. 

“Heard you were spotted at Monk’s Gate,” came a female voice, filtered through a helmet vocoder. He knew that voice, even through the vocoder. “Thought, ‘He’s not stupid enough to come back here’.” 

“Oh, you’d be surprised.”

“Who’s this?” Rey asks from next to Elektra. 

Finn then demands, “What’s going on?” 

“Guys, this is Zorii. Zorii, this is Rey, Finn, and Elektra.”

The pressure of the blaster against his skull deepened. “I could pull this trigger right now.”

“I’ve seen you do worse.” 

“For a lot less.” 

Poe pulls down his hood, staring at her. She was tall and lithe, in a maroon flight suit trimmed in copper bronzium. Her twin blasters were newer, and her helmet and visor which shrouded her enittre had a few more dings in it. 

“Can we just, uh, talk about this?” He questions. 

“I wanna see your brains in the snow.” 

“So, you’re still mad?” She didn’t reply and Poe had to defuse the situation. “Zorii, we could use your help. We gotta crack this droid’s head open and fast.” 

“Pardon me!” C-3PO spoke.

“We’re trying to find Babu Frik.” 

“Babu?” Zorii eyes him. “Babu only works for the crew. That’s not you anymore.”

“What crew?” Elektra knits her brows together, looking back and forth between them as she fixed the rim of her brown cap that she wore to help hide her face.

“Oh, funny he never mentioned it.” Zorii said, in a tone that meant it wasn’t funny at all.

Poe shoots a look at her, embarrassment riddling his face. “No no no no.” He mutters, shaking his head in a plea for her not to tell them. 

“Your friend’s old job was specialized dancing.” 

Poe’s shoulders deflated. There it was. Now there’d be no end to it.

Finn was mildly interested in this tidbit, turning eyes on Poe. “You were an exotic dancer?”

Poe then retorted, “You were a Stormtrooper?

“ _Were_ you an exotic dancer?” Rey prodded. 

“Were you a scavenger? We could do this all night.”

Two figures materialize out of the darkness, tall, armed begins, one from each direction, blocking their exits. Zorii shifted her blaster to Poe’s neck. 

“You don’t have all night,” Zorii spat at him. “You know, I’m still digging out of the hole you put me in when you left to join the Resistance.” Her gaze went to Elektra, recognizing her. “You. A birdy told me that you’re the one they’re really looking for. Bounty for her just might cover us.” To the oncoming thugs, she ordered, “Djak’kankah!” 

“Don’t Djak’kankah.” Poe protested, but Rey was already moving to keep Elektra safe. She swung up her staff to knock Zorii’s blaster out of her hand and whacked her in the back of the leg. In the same, single fluid movement, she whipped her staff around, slammed the end into the face of one of Zorii’s thugs. Rey then hefted the quarterstaff and jabbed it into the other thug’s stomach which sent him backwards down the steps. 

Elektra then saw Zorii reach for her blaster, aiming to shoot at Rey but she quickly unhooked her lightsaber from her belt, igniting it. The tip was looming before of Zorii’s neck, making her hear it crackle, realizing that she’d been pinned with an ancient Jedi weapon.

Poe didn’t mind admitting that he was feeling a little bit smug at Rey’s actions, but even more so as Elektra said in a preternaturally kind voice, “Please. We could really use your help.”

Zorii studied Elektra and Rey through her mask. 

“Not that you care,” her voice as cool and steady as ever, “but I think you two are okay.” 

Elektra blinked. “I care.” She retracted her lightsaber, clipping it to her belt as Rey offered out her hand to help Zorii up onto her feet. 

They headed off, behind them came the unmistakable tat-tat Stormtroopers marching in formation. They slipped out of the alley before they could be spotted. 

As they traveled a snowy passageway, Finn leaned over to him and whispered, “Poe Dameron: Exotic Dancer.” 

“Don’t.”

“Dancing of the Exotic.” 

“ _Alright_.”

Babu Frik’s workshop was a cramp maze of tools and droid parts. The walls were wholly obscured by shelves, piled with wire and electronics. Every table surface was covered, every nook and cranny filled to overflowing. Part even draped from the ceiling overhead. 

It was a fortune in parts and Rey couldn’t help trying to calculate the portion value of everything she saw, like an astromech head dome that was in great condition. It was made of lastex which means it could be easy to buff out the scorch marks and sell it for—

Something bumped her foot. A janitor droid mopped up a bit of melted snow they’d tracked in, then scurried away. 

“I haven’t the faintest idea why I agreed to this,” C-3PO says aloud. “I must be malfunctioning.” 

He was reclined on a workbench, with so many wires sticking out of his head it almost looked like he’d grown fur. 

“You’re going to be okay,” Rey assures him. 

Elektra stood over on the side, having taken off her jacket and stood with her arms folded in front of her chest. Her dark cap that she snatched from one of the shops still rested on her head since she’d tied her long, wavy brown hair into a ponytail and stuck it through the backstrap. She had taken off Han’s jacket earlier and handed it to Rey to place in her bag, she didn’t deserve to wear it. Not after what she had done. 

“He better be.” She utters, eyes locked on the protocol droid. 

Rey felt Elektra’s sorrow in the Force and it was strong, she just wanted to put her mind at ease with this plan and glanced at the droidsmith. Babu Frik. He was nearly invisible, hidden behind C-3PO’s rear head plate. He was one of the tiniest beings Rey had ever seen, his height barely stretching as long as her forearm. He poked around in C-3PO’s head with an electroprobe, muttering in Anzellan, occasionally interspersed with words in Basic. He had a grizzled face highlighted by bright, intelligent eyes, and grey brows as long and stiff as whisk brooms. The welding goggles he wore on the top of his head were armored against scorching. 

Rey crouches besides him. “Babu Frik?” She says. “Can you help us with this?”

Babu responded, but Rey had no idea what he was saying, eyeing Finn who shrugs. 

“Zorii?” She stands, heading over near Elektra. “Is this going to work?”

Zorii said something in Anzellan, and Babu responded as though annoyed at being interrupted. The words were delightful, clanging against one another fast and curt, like metal parts tumbling into a melting vat. 

“Babu says he’s found something in your droid’s forbidden memory bank,” Zorii states. “Words . . . translated from Sith?”

Rey nods. “That’s it.” 

Finn then came over, “Yeah, that’s what we need.”

Zorii turned to Poe. “Who are you hanging out with that speaks _Sith_?” She asks, and Elektra could’ve sworn that Zorii glanced toward the lightsaber on her belt. 

“Can you make him transl—” Poe pauses, looking at the tiny being instead to ask. “Babu, can you make him translate?” 

Zorii and Babu spoke back and forth. Then Zorii said, “Yes. But doing do will trigger a complete —”

“—complete memory wipe.” C-3PO nods in affirmation and Elektra’s heart sank to her stomach. 

“Wait wait wait,” Poe said to Babu. “We make him translate it, he won’t remember . . . _anything_?”

“Droid, memory go blank.” Babu says. “Blank blank.”

“There’s gotta be something else then,” Elektra broke her silence finally. “Another way.” 

Finn then thought about it. “Doesn’t R2 back up his memory?” 

“Oh, please.” C-3PO speaks. “R2’s storage units are famously unreliable.” 

Elektra hated this. Along with R2-D2, he’d survived the Clone Wars, the Galactic Civil War, and now the Resistance against the First Order. Anakin had built C-3PO when he was a little boy but the golden droid remembered little of it. His memory had been wiped once from Bail Organa to not spill any confidential information, but that was only a small section of his memory data. C-3PO held memories of Han, of her and Ben being babies, and helping Han and Leia with the twins alongside Chewie. _Chewie._ The droid still remembered Chewie. Elektra couldn’t stomach it. 

“We’re not wiping his memory.” Feeling herself getting teary eyed again, she mumbles, “End of discussion.” 

“El,” Finn said with sadness, he felt and understood her pain. 

Poe watched the girl, frowning and saw how BB-8 rolls over by her foot, resting his head against her leg. It was the astromech’s way of hugging, of offering her comfort. 

“He knows the odds better than any of us.” Rey says, gently peers to C-3PO. “Do we have a choice?” 

C-3PO was silent for a long moment, considering. He then stands, taking a few steps away from him. “If this mission fails, it was all for nothing. All we’ve done, all this time.” 

Poe’s exact words from earlier, before they’d all held hands and vowed to press on. 

C-3PO turns, his gaze moving to each of them, lingering on one face then another. 

“What, uh, what’re you doing there, 3PO?” Poe asked. 

“Taking one last look, sir. At my friends.” 

Elektra ran forwards, giving the droid a hug and she let her tears fall. She could hardly believe this was happening. She’d lost Chewie, and now she was losing C-3PO. Sure, he’d still be there but not his memories. Not what made him, him. She’d be a stranger to him once it was over and that was a punishment worse than death. 

“Please, don’t cry Miss Bre.” He began to say, somberly, “The possibility of successfully doing this are—”

She shakes her head softly, whispering, “Never tell me the odds.” 

“Of course.” 

D-O looks up to BB-8. “S-sad.” 

The sound of a large vehicle filtered in through the walls. Babu cocked his head and said, “Uh oh.” 

Zorii cleared her throat. “Night raids are starting. I’ll keep a lookout.” She moved as is to leave. 

“I’m coming with you,” Poe interjected. 

“You still don’t trust me,” Zorii said, laughing a little as she headed up the steps. 

“Did you ever trust me?” He went up after. 

“Nope.” 

Together Zorii and Poe exited the workshop, heading to the rooftop, seeing the city spread out before them; dark and icy. 

Kylo Ren stood before the door of Interrogation Six, rallying his thoughts. When Pryde told him that they had the Wookie, his face had dropped. Chewbacca was alive which meant Elektra didn’t kill him, though she still displayed her dark power. He opens the door, seeing the Wookie shacked to the wall. Chewbacca looks up with fury in his eyes. The last time they saw each other was when he killed Han and when Chewbacca shot him with his bowcaster. 

With a wave of Kylo’s hand, Chewbacca’s shackles opened and clanked to the floor. He removed the lightsaber from his belt, dropping it to the ground to show that he meant no harm even though he waited for Chewie to kill him for having killed Han Solo. But he had done no such thing. 

“Elektra thought she killed you. I thought she did too.” 

He sensed a stab of fear and confusion from the Wookie, on Elektra’s behalf. 

“And it was my fault.” Kylo admits him, taking off his mask for Chewie to see his face and how much guilt was written on it. “I pushed her, and I didn’t mean it. You should’ve seen it, she was so desperate to save you and I felt her fear. I tried to stop her, to keep her from tapping into that fear but it swelled into anger . . . Next thing we both knew, lightning shot from her hand.” 

Chewie roared softly, and Kylo understood his words. 

“I know you hate me—even want to kill me because of what I did, but you have to understand that I didn’t want this for her.” Kylo pleads with the Wookie. “I’m trying to save her.”

Chewbacca had been quiet since his arrival on the Steadfast, learning from the officers that Kylo had been searching for the ‘scavenger’ which he knew to be what Rey was but Chewie raised Kylo. He knew that everything that normally dealt with Kylo dealt with Elektra in some way or another. 

Kylo had the First Order after Elektra and he figured it was to turn her dark or to kill her for betraying him but Chewie knew better than to think that. Kylo was always overly protective of her and whenever he wasn’t, it was Chewie’s job while C-3PO would ramble on about the odds and evens of what could and would happen if she had done this or that. Kylo talking to Chewie right now gave into that fact. 

He had no one in the First Order to speak about this with so he came to the Wookie, trying to tell him that what he was doing was to prevent his little twin sister from going to Exegol. Had he seen something within the Force and that’s why he was adamant on it? The Wookie had no idea but what he did know was that he loved Elektra, just like Kylo. 

“I’d let you go but the First Order needs to think that I’m on their side, and I can’t do that if you’re roaming around free.” A pause. “Do you trust me?” 

Chewbacca didn’t reply, just looked at him and Kylo inched closer, kneeling down before the Wookie and looked into those blue eyes of his. He slowly reached out, touching Chewie’s arm and found himself seeing his memories and thoughts without inserting himself into his mind. 

He saw flashes of the Wookie laughing with a much younger Han Solo then he himself remembered, wearing the brown jacket that he had seen Elektra wearing in the Pasaana desert. Felt Chewbacca’s joy when his best friend married the woman he’d come to love like a sister. Saw the Wookie cuddling two human toddlers, teaching the older children to fly a speeder, target practice with the young teenagers, their blasters set on stun against a haphazard dummy made of rocks. 

_Uncle Chewie_ , he’d called him back then like how Elektra still did now. 

Kylo removes his hand, hesitating and Chewie does a soft groan. 

“I’m sorry.” He whispers and begins putting the shackles back on him. “Chewie,” his words were low as if he spoke any louder, it would break. “She can’t go to Exegol.” 

Chewie may have not been Force sensitive but it was no brainer to see that the boy before him was hurting emotionally. He nods in understanding, a part of him still upset over the boy killing Han but was pleased that he confronted it and even apologized to him. 

Kylo dawns on his mask, giving the Wookie one last look before exiting. 

Hux joined Pryde and Admiral Griss in following Supreme Leader Kylo Ren as he strode away from the hangar bay and interrogation rooms. 

“I want all the Wookie’s belongings brought to my quarters.” 

Hux hid his smile. Kylo was practically frothing at the mouth. He had a history with his father’s copilot, and seeing the Wookie had done something to him. The Supreme Leader was likely not thinking with a clear head. Good. 

“Report, General Pryde.” He orders. 

“The Knights of Ren have tracked the scavenger.” 

Kylo’s stride hitched. 

“To a settlement called Kijimi,” Admiral Griss added. 

Hux needed to insert himself before his peers brought any more good news. He asks, “Shall we destroy the city, Supreme—”

Kylo stuck a long finger in Hux’s face, effectively shushing him. He then hurried off alone while Hux stood with his hands clasped behind his back and watched him go, wondering how he always managed to say the wrong thing. 

Kijimi used to quiet down during this deep hour of the night, but no longer. Laser flashes glowed briefly between buildings. Distant shouts echoed strangely over the rooftops. Several blocks away, a First Order UA-TT walker thudded through the streets. Poe watched a small figure dart away from its heavy steps, fleeing for their life. 

“How long has it been like this?”

“The First Order took most of the kids a long time ago. Can’t stand the cries anymore. I’ve saved up enough to get out. I’m going to the Colonies.”

Poe whipped his head to look at her. “How? All those hyperlanes are blocked.” No one was getting to the Colonies these days without special authorization. The First Order wanted everyone to stay right here in well mapped sectors, where they could be controlled. 

Zorii fished into a belt compartment, drawing out a small object that flashed in the pale glow of a nearby oil lamp. It was round like a coin and latticed, with a port for connectivity. 

“That’s a First Order captain’s medallion.” He slightly chuckles. “I’ve never seen a real one.” 

“Free passage through any blockade. Landing privileges, any vessel.” She placed it back into her belt. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “Leaving you and the crew like that.” 

Zorii touched the side of her mask, her visor shield retracted, finally revealing the depthless wide spaced green eyes that seemed almost yellow in the lamp light. She wanted him to see her for this next part, to show him that even after it all, she still considered him a friend. 

“You always did do the right, wreckless thing.” She softly chuckles. “Using your good looks to trick and steal from the rich, then giving it back to the poor. It was your calling to join the Resistance.” 

Poe thought about it for a second. He had always helped people, that was true. It was his reason for being a Exotic Dancer in the first place. People with wealth paid good money and provided things such as gifts and jewels, and Poe would take it and hand it to the less fortunate. Sometimes the wealthy people would pay for them to join parties and be entertainment, and that was Poe’s specialty; he’d steal lavish things that they didn’t need or had plenty of to the point that they wouldn’t notice if one was missing. Until someone had, but Poe had left to join the fight and it put Zorii in a hole. 

The Resistance was supposed to be Poe’s chance to continue what his parents had done and instilled in him; to help those who can’t fight and fend for themselves. To do what’s right and follow his morals. He did, but Crait had slowly shaken his belief in the war. He was right, they were the spark that would burn the First Order down but it seemed like there was no other help which is why he accidently lashed out on Elektra. She was a good fighter and a valuable aspect to the Resistance but training to be a Jedi was keeping her from helping them. 

“The Resistance and the First Order,” Poe slowly says, sighing, “The war isn’t over. Maybe it is. We sent out a call for help at the Battle of Crait. Nobody came. Except for Elektra and Rey. Everyone’s so afraid. They’ve given up.” 

“No, I don’t believe you believe that.” Zorii spoke to him. “There are more of us. There’s those girls and your boyfriend—” 

Poe then allowed himself to laugh. “Yeah, okay.” 

“You like him.” Zorii says, already knowing. “And he likes you too. Should see how he stares at you when you aren’t looking.” 

Poe nods and along the horizon, he sees a handful of ships appearing; small at first but growing ever larger as they approached. When they breached the city boundaries, they spread out and flashed on huge searchlights. The lights swept back and forth, lighting up sections of the city brighter than day. 

“The hell are those?” 

Zorii stood. “Your cue to leave.” 

Inside the workshop, Elektra watches Babu operate on C-3PO. The protocol droid’s head plate had been removed, and Babu was elbow deep inside C-3PO’s head. Distantly, through the building’s stone walls, came the muted some of screaming and occasional blasterfire. She wasn’t sure if the First Order was tearing the city apart looking for them, or if it was like this all the time. 

She looked toward Finn and Rey, both wincing at every sound of battle. Not in fear, Elektra noted, but in empathy. Sparks flew from C-3PO’s head, startling Rey and she couldn’t stand to watch anymore. She stepped away, out of view, and hunkered down on the floor. 

“Rey,” Elektra motions towards D-O. “He has a squeaky wheel.” 

She nods, grabbing an oil can, moving toward the tiny droid who recoils at the sight of Rey looming over him. 

“It’s just oil,” she tells him. “Won’t hurt. I promise.” 

The first few drops of lubricant Rey applied to D-O did absolutely nothing. He was drier than the Rakith Plateau in high summer. But he made soft whirring sounds of happiness, so she kept at it; applying it to his head joint, his wheel rotor, even the base of his communications array. 

“Squeaky wheel,” he informed her solemnly. “I-I-I have a squeaky wheel.” 

“Now try.”

He rolled back and forth experimentally. Not a sound. “Speak eliminated. T-Thank you. Very kind.” He then took off on a freewheeling rampage, running circled around the workshop, whipping about B-8 as if enticing him to play. 

Zorii dashed inside, Poe at her heels which made the three young adults stare at them. “There’s an incoming Destroyer.” 

“We gotta go now.” Poe steps up. “Did we get it? Babu?” 

“Yup. Droid is ready!” 

Something inside C-3PO seemed to purr as Babu caused another spark to pop. His eyes flashed on as a bright and eerie red. He cocked his head to look at them all, a sharp, jerky, almost hostile motion as he stood up tall. 

Elektra steps forwards while everyone backs up, giving the droid space. Her heart sank because no matter what happened next, if they were successful, she had last another family member. 

He spoke, his vocal intonators using a strange new modulation that was dark and low. “The Emperor’s wayfinder is in the Imperial Vault. At delta three-six, transient nine-three, bearing three-two on a moon in the Endor system. From the southern shore. Only this blade tells.” His head then snaps down, looking Elektra directly in the eyes. “Only this blade tells.”

The droid jerks once again, then slumped as if powering down. His eyes went dark, his body stilled. 

“The Endor system?” Finn questioned. “Where the last war ended?”

“Where Uncle Luke faced Palpatine.” Elektra replies just as the workshop begins rattling. Bolts and screws spilled from shelves. The battle droid legs hanging from the ceiling swung violently. 

Poe ran to the nearest window, and Elektra followed. Together they peered up into the night. 

A massive Destroyer cruised low over the mountains, blocking out the sky. The blowback from its thrusters shook the city, tossing trash and loose snow about, creating chaos. 

“Ren’s Destroyer.” 

He had found them again. Elektra tensed to flee. Her brother was near and he was emotional, having seen someone’s memories . . . 

Her stomach turned over. 

“Elektra?” Rey felt her relief in the Force. 

“Chewie . . .” 

Finn stares at her. “What about him?” 

“He’s on the ship.” She hadn’t killed Chewie after all. She could still save him. “He’s alive, I feel it!” 

Poe was confused. “What? How?”

“There were two transports!” Rey said, thinking back. “He must’ve been on the other one.”

“We gotta go get him!” Finn nods, already grabbing for Elektra’s coat that she took off. 

Zorii’s voice came out almost like a squeak. “Your friend’s on that sky trash?” 

“I guess he is,” Poe said, in a voice as glad as Elektra felt. 

Something inside the workshop clattered, and they all whirled. Poe’s hand flew to his blaster. 

It was C-3PO, rebooting. His eyes flashed a familiar glow. “Might I introduce myself! I am C-3PO, human cyborg relations! And you are?” 

“Okay, that’s gonna be a problem.” Poe said, but Elektra’s relief blossomed. The droid was back, in some semblance of his former self. 

“Helloooo,” said Babu. “I, Babu Frik.” 

“Why, hello!”  
“You’ve got bigger problems.” Zorii reminds Poe. “To the alleys. Let’s go!” 

The sounds of pursuit were all around them as Poe and his friends hurried through the crooked streets of Kijimi City, keeping low to avoid Troopers. But their group was only as fast as their member, which was C-3PO; shuffling along at half the speed of everyone else. 

“3PO, move your metal ass!” Poe shouts behind him. 

“How _dare_ you!” The droid said. “We’ve only just met!”

They turned a corner. Ochi’s freighter was straight ahead, and Poe’s chest was suddenly aching and empty. At least he wouldn’t leave his friend without saying goodbye. 

Zorii and Elektra exchanged a nod, then by silent mutual agreement, Elektra ran ahead with Finn and Rey, and the droids, giving Poe and Zorii a moment alone. 

Zorii pulled the captain’s medallion from her belt and handed it to him. “Might get you on a capital ship,” she says. “Go help your friend.” 

Poe stared at it, his breath catching in his throat. “I don’t think I can take this.” 

“I don’t care what you think.” 

Poe smiled. Still the same Zorii. 

“Poe!” Rey’s voice shouts. “It’s the Knights. Come on!” 

He took the medallion. “Thank you, you always were a good friend.” 

“And you were always the better person.” She then gave him a friendly shove. 

Poe followed as Rey and Elektra raced into the cockpit with Finn and the droids. Elektra took the pilot’s seat, and Poe slipped into the seat next to her. Both started flicking a dizzying array of switches. Lights came on, and the engines hummed to life. Finn tried to pay attention. Unlike Poe and Elektra, he was not a natural pilot, but he was still supposed to be learning piloty things. Leia expected every member of her core team to be able to fly something in a pinch. 

“Hang tight,” Elektra said, her becoming more like her old self. “We’re going up hot.”

In the Falcon, that meant Finn had better get himself to the turret station with Rey, but there was nothing for a third or fourth passenger to do in the Bestoon Legacy; the cockpit didn’t even have a place to sit. 

Elektra lifted them away from the planet at such a fast, steep angle that the acceleration compensators couldn’t keep Finn’s stomach from dropping into his feet and pressing like lead against the floor. Within moments they had cleared the atmosphere and were quickly approaching the massive Star Destroyer that was most certainly Kylo Ren’s command ship. 

Poe flipped Zorii’s captain’s medallion into the dash slot. Something beeped, and Poe’s shoulders slumped with a breath of fresh air. “Medallion works,” he said. “Cleared for cargo hangar twelve.” 

“Hang on, Chewie,” Elektra murmured. “We’re coming.” 

“Whoever this Chewie is,” said C-3PO, “this is madness.” 

There’s been a time when Finn would have agreed with the droid, before he’d had friends.


	17. Elektra

Traffic was heavy, with supply ships, TIEs, and shuttles flying to and from various hangars. Elektra angled them neatly toward one, slowing to regulation speed, slipping through the containment field, touching the freighter down onto the shiny hangar floor with the lightest kiss. 

Together, the group rushed down the ramp. Two patrolling Troopers approached, stepping in unison. One said, “Credentials and manifest.” 

Finn blasted him. Poe got the other. Both collapsed to the ground. 

Rey turned to the droids, who were attempting to follow. “You three, stay there.” 

“Happily.” C-3PO peeped. 

Poe looks to Finn. “Which way?” 

“Uh, no idea. Follow me.” He had a feeling. Besides, there was a pattern to First Order construction and organization that was fleet universal. If he wandered around a little, he’d be able to figure out where to go. 

They jogged down a corridor. Just as in Starkiller Base, the floors were pristine, the light panels, dataports, and even support struts sparkling with newness and state of the art technology. Finn knew exactly how much work it took to keep everything looking like it just came off a Corellian assembly line. He preferred the dirt and fallen leaves and invading tree roots of the Ajan Kloss base any day. 

They turned a corner and came face to face with another pair of patrolling Troopers, who raised their rifles. 

“Drop your weapons!” One ordered. 

Rey stepped up in front of the boys and Elektra, waving her hand. “It’s okay that we’re here.” Her voice was full of quiet strength. 

“It’s okay that you’re here.” The one echoes. 

The other Trooper nodded. “It’s good.” He added. 

She waves her hand again. “You’re _ relieved _ that we’re here.” 

“Thank goodness you’re here!” Said the first Trooper, his shoulders going slack. 

“Welcome, guys!” Said the second. 

Poe leaned over and whispered in Finn’s ears: “Does she do that to us?” 

Elektra then leans her head up in between them. “Only works on the weak minded.”

“We’re looking for a prisoner,” Rey said. 

Elektra then stood up next to her, “And his belongings.” 

The Stormtroopers cheerfully gave directions to the cellblock where Chewie was being held. After the Troopers resumed their patrol, Finn and his friends raced away. Within moments, they came to a split in the corridor, just like the Troopers had described. 

“The cameras.” Elektra took out her blaster pistol, shooting the one and Poe shot another. 

“They said Chewie’s this way.” Finn ran up to the one door, punching in a sequence into the panel while Rey and Poe waited with their blasters ready. 

Elektra, on the other hand, she stopped in her tracks and took a few steps away from them. Finn got the door open, Rey and Poe aiming in case anyone was on the other side and he turned, seeing Elektra slowly wandering away. His heart thudded in his chest because he knew that something was going on. 

“El?” 

“The dagger. We’re going to need it.” She said, half to herself. 

“Why?” Poe spoke up. 

C-3PO had already translated it, already given them the coordinates of the Emperor’s wayfinder. 

“A feeling.” She informs them. “I’ll meet you back in the hangar.” She then dashed off. 

“El, you can’t just—” Poe grabbed Finn’s arm to silence him. 

“Guys,” Rey looks at them. “We need to get Chewie, remember?” 

Finn nods, the three of them jogging down the corridor. 

They reached the prisoner cellblock and found the cell that supposedly held Chewie. Finn hit the switch, and the door wooshed to reveal the Wookie, manacled to the wall. He growled and moaned excitedly, almost too fast for Finn to follow with his rudimentary understanding of Shyriiwook. He only caught the words for “surprised” and “danger” and “much gladness”.

“Of course we came for you!” Poe said. 

Chewie rattled a question. 

“Elektra’s here,” Finn said. “She’s gonna get the dagger.” 

He spoke again. 

Rey waved her hand, undoing his shackles and paused. “What you mean Kylo visited you?” 

Finn and Poe pause with helping the Wookie up, glancing back and forth between the girl and Chewie as he growled a few sentences. 

“‘Trying to  _ save _ her’?” Poe forced himself to try and not roll his eyes. “From going to Exegol? Yeah, so we don’t stop Palpatine’s fleet from destroying us first.” 

Rey was flabbergasted, gazing to Finn who had a look on his face. He knew something in secret but they didn’t have time. It would take moments for the First Order to figure out that Ochi’s freighter didn’t belong in hangar twelve, if they hadn’t already. And once that happened, even off duty Stormtroopers would be called upon to join the search for intruders. 

“We’ve got Ochi’s ship,” Finn said to the Wookie. “Follow me.” 

The four hurried down the corridor to a door and Finn hit the release. It whoosed up—revealing a Stormtrooper who raised her blaster. “Over here!” 

She fires and Finn fires back, hitting the release again to slam the door down. “Wrong way!”

They sprinted away in the opposite direction and ran right into another Stormtrooper, who began to fire. They’d caught him by surprise, and his first shots were wild. 

“Not really a right way, is there?” Poe says, taking out the Stormtrooper. He crouched over the fallen Trooper, dislodged his blaster rifle from beneath the body and slid it along the floor toward Chewie. 

The Wookie grabbed it, and brought the rifle to bear just in time to blast two Troopers who had come up behind them. 

They scurried down a corridor, all four taking shots at Stormtroopers as they fell to the floor with thuds; blasterfire going in every direction. 

Down a few steps they went, turning to head up a ramp and Rey shot a Trooper, them falling and Finn jumped over their body. They pressed on. 

“Are we close?” Poe peers to Finn. 

“Just up ahead!” 

“Blast them!” A female Trooper comes up from behind with another but Chewie, Rey, and Finn all fire at once. Direct hits. 

Around a corner, Poe led and got shot, dropping to the ground. Finn watched in horror, seeing him clutching his arm in pain. 

“Poe!” He yells, the pilot’s arm was charred and oozing. He needed medical attention right away. Finn runs over, full force, getting down next to him on his knees. “Are you okay?”

Poe glances up, seeing an entire squad approaching them with rifles whipped up. “Nope.” 

More came up from behind Rey and Chewie, getting surrounded; too many for them to fight off. “Put your weapons down. Hands up! Now!”

Finn raised his hands in surrender. Ke knew exactly what would happen next: interrogation, execution. He’d been on the verge of execution before, on the Supremacy, Phasma looming over him. A fellow couldn’t reasonably expect to get out of that kind of situation more than once. Not even with Rey knowing the Jedi mind trick. 

“Hey, fellas.” Poe tried to smooth talk them. 

“Shut up, scum.” Said a Trooper, in a voice that reminded Finn so much of Phasma that he had to resist the urge to snap back. 

It didn’t take long for First Order officers to appear on the scene. Finn glared as General Hux approached. The other guy was new to Finn, a slender, severe fellow with a perpetual frown and a piercing blue gaze. Rank insignias in the First Order were subtle, but Finn knew them all. This man has extra shoulder pleats and a double rank band on his left forearm. He could be none other than Allegiant General Pryde, outranked only by the Supreme Leader himself. 

They were so dead. 

“We found the scavenger.” The one Trooper pushed Rey forwards, holding her prisoner. 

Allegiant General Pryde seemed bored. “Take them away. Terminate them.”

Finn couldn’t believe it. No interrogation? Not even a single question from the allegiant general?

“Sir,” the one Trooper was slightly confused. “The Supreme Leader said he wanted the scavenger alive.” 

Chewie growls in a low whisper, Poe and Finn both hearing what he said: “It was a code for him to find Bre.”

General Pryde gave a deadly stare to the Trooper that spoke. “Terminate them, that’s a new order.” 

Pryde left but Hux tagged along as Stormtroopers thrust file butts into their backs and shoved them down the corridor toward the execution chamber. 

It was a small room, with jets built into the walls. Once they were dead, the jets would release heat and toxins to break down their remains, then vacuum everything up, leaving a perfectly sterile chamber. All physical traces of their existence would be obliterated. 

“Turn around,” a Stormtrooper orders. 

They faced the wall, hearing the four Troopers raising their blasters and aimed to fire. 

“Actually, I’d like to do this myself,” Hux said, and Finn heard the click of a blaster accepting a new identiprint. 

Finn expected much from Hux. If Finn had a credit for everyone who wanted him dead for deserting the First Order . . . Well, he had no regrets, no matter what happened next. Except he  _ did _ have one. He couldn’t see Elektra one last time. 

“What were you gonna tell Ellie before?” Poe asks, as if sensing his thoughts. 

“You still on that?” Finn awaited the inevitable. 

Poe just gave him a look. “Oh, I’m sorry, is this a bad time?” 

Chewie groans and Rey looks next to her to see Poe staring at Finn.

Finn nods, glancing back at him. “Yeah. It sort of  _ is _ a bad time, Poe.”

Chewie complained that he was going to die hungry. 

“Well, cause later doesn’t really look like an option.” 

Rey shook her head delicately. “I won’t ever get to tell Elektra that I love her . . .” 

Finn’s gaze went past Poe, seeing Rey’s sad face and how her cheeks were a shade of pink. Suddenly, the memory of him asking if she had a boyfriend back on Jakku brought itself forwards in his mind and how she kinda gave him an expression that didn’t quite make sense until now. Rey wasn’t looking for a prince to come and show her planets and galaxies she never been to, she was awaiting a princess.

“She has the spirit.” Poe states, motioning his head to Rey as he kept staring at Finn. “If you’re gonna let something off your chest, maybe now’s not the worst time to—”

A blaster shrieked and they all shut their eyes, jolting. 

Death did not come. Finn opened his eyes and turned like the others, seeing Hux standing over the Stormtroopers’ dead bodies and his blaster top smoking after close range fire on the highest setting. 

“I’m the spy,” Hux announced. 

“ _ What? _ ” Poe says. 

“ _ You?! _ ” Finn shouts. 

“Yes.” Hux replied enthusiastically. “We don’t have much time.”

Chewie, Finn, and Rey all gaped at him while Poe grinned and pointed his finger at the pale general. “ _ I knew it! _ ”

“No, you did _ not _ .” Finn scoffs, rolling his eyes at Poe.

Zorii Bliss crouched on the rooftop of the Kozinarg Guildhouse, spying on the squad of Snowtroopers who gathered at the steps to Monk’s Gate. A tall, black clad humanoid with an odd helmet and a long cloak swept toward them. At his back were a band of similarly clad warriors. She could see none of their faces, but their weapons expressed volumes. One carried an axe, with a long weighted handle even taller than he was. Another held a giant club. Still another with a wicked scythe. 

As the black clad man approached, the squad’s officer snapped to attention. “Supreme Leader.” 

Zorii barely managed to hold her gasp in check. The man standing below with his gang was Kylo Ren himself.

“Lieutenant Barok,” the Supreme Leader said. His voice was tight and calm, though Zorii got the feeling that he was barely containing his worry. 

“We have a perimeter around the city.” 

He nods, turning to his gang. “Search for her again. She’s close.” 

Elektra entered a bright, white space with soaring ceilings and clean perfection. Kylo Ren’s private quarters. She stepped slowly, carefully down into the room which was beautiful and light filled, radiating warmth. 

**_Bre,_ **

She froze, hearing a voice calling out to her, drawing her to something else in the room other than the table where she spotted Chewie’s satchel, bowcaster, and Ochi’s dagger. 

Gingerly Elektra spins on her heel, seeing a redestal, deep black in contrast with its surrounding, hutting unchallenged from the shiny white floor. A place of honor. Displayed atop the pedestal was a warped black mask, its eyeholes and vocoder still gaping but melted like heated wax, smeared into a display of perpetual agony. She stared at it a long time, too long, unable to look away. It had belonged to their grandfather, Darth Vader. 

But the mask wasn’t what she’d come for, and she wanted nothing to do with it. She turns and heads to the table opposite of the pedestal and reaches for the dagger first, about to wrap her fingers around the handle until . . .

**_Bre,_ **

She stares back at the mask, feeling a pull towards it and this time, Elektra goes to stand before it. She remembered seeing it in his vision with Kylo, him resting his hand on it and reaching out with the Force. She still had no idea what he was doing but it had done something to her because she saw herself in the throne of the Sith and had heard Vader’s voice, asking her to join him. To join the dark side. Gradually, her hand reaches out and places itself on the helmet and pieces of a lifelong puzzle begin to click together in her head. 

Anakin’s body is charred and burned from the lava on Mustafar. His legs and one arm are cut off, him struggling to breathe as he’s in a medical capsule and lifted onto a table in the Rehab Center. Elektra could feel Palpatine out in the hall standing, knowing he had his sinister intent and she felt her blood boil as Anakin yelled in misery. 

She steps up next to the table, staring down her grandfather and he looks over, and Elektra could’ve sworn that he had actually seen her; his blue-green eyes never leaving hers. But this was a Forceback, a memory that she was visiting so it would be impossible. 

He got new mechanical legs and arm, being dressed in black body armor and nose plugs were inserted. From above, Elektra sees the mask coming down and she steps back, seeing it connecting to his armor and being sealed tightly. The helmet is then added and after a short moment, he begins breathing. 

Palpatine enters and the table that Anakin was on moves upright as he nears him.  **_“Lord Vader, can you hear me?”_ **

Elektra gnashed her teeth together, breathing heavily and noticed the lights on the floor that surrounded the table were in six spokes, encapsulated within a circle; the Galactic Empire symbol.

**_“Yes, Master.”_ ** He then eyes Palpatine.  **_“Where is Padme? Is she safe? Is she alright?”_ **

Elektra felt her eyes water with hate, with anger, and sorrow. 

**_“It seems, in your anger, you killed her.”_ **

**_“I . . . I couldn’t have. She was alive. I felt it!”_ **

Everything in the room began to implode including a few of the droids as he broke from his restraints, stepping forward with his new legs and his painful screams carried out throughout and echoed off the walls as Palpatine grinned with pleasure. 

Elektra moved away from the mask, eyes wide, feeling herself getting upset from Palpatine and she tried to calm herself down but what came next was like adding fuel to the burning fire that was inside her chest. 

“Elektra,” Kylo’s voice erupts from behind her. 

She spun fast, ripping the lightsaber from her belt and igniting it. Her brother stood alone before her, masked, surrounded by darkness. Snow dusting his cape. He wasn’t there, it was a Force connection, just like in the Pasaana. Just like on Ahch-To.

“Wherever you are, you are hard to find.” 

“And you’re hard to get rid of.” She steps around him, heading back to the table to get Chewie’s things and the dagger. 

“I didn’t mean to push you in the desert.” His deep, vocoded words sent chills up her spine but she still tried to ignore him. She knew that he couldn’t see what she was doing so as long as she sheltered what she was grabbing, he’d have no idea. “I just needed to see you, to tell you that what you’re doing is not worth it.” 

Her movements stopped, listening to her brother and Elektra’s grip tightened on the still ignited lightsaber that was in her right hand, humming.

“What you did to the transport, that power you unleashed . . . It’s growing inside of you more than ever. I know how this story is going to end. Elektra—”

She whirls back around, whipping up her lightsaber and aimed it at his throat. “You don’t know  _ anything _ .” She quietly utters to him, feeling herself vibrate with ill temper. 

“I know you’re afraid and full of hate,” Kylo begins to say and she lowers her lightsaber back down, “those are two things that eventually leads someone to the dark side. To becoming a Sith.” 

“Don’t.” Elektra said through gritted teeth. She hated this. That he had knowledge of what she felt, of what she was trying to do. She was finally trying to be her own person and yet, here he was, telling her of what she would become.

“You know what happened to our grandfather Vader.” She backs away as he draws closer towards her. “It’ll happen to you too.”

“I don’t want this!” And Elektra didn’t. Not from him. 

“Look inside of yourself,” he informs her out of concern, hoping that she’d finally see it and be propelled from heading to Exegol. 

“No!” She twirls and swings the lightsaber but he jerks back out of reach and watches as she brings her left hand to the hilt, bringing it up and over her head to strike down. He brought out his own lightsaber with one hand and they clashed, blue on red. 

“I never lied to you.” He relentlessly spoke, being persistent. “And you know it’s true. You can feel it.” 

_ She was sitting on the Sith throne, her eyes glowing yellow, dawning a black cape and wearing her black face paint of Massassi blood. The air is a display of sudden lightning strikes and she grins evilly, coldly.  _

Elektra pushed the vision away even as she pushed against Kylo’s lightsaber, thrusting him back with a grunt. They then begin circling each other, Elektra scowls as she eyes her older brother in the white room. 

With Kylo, he watches as Elektra struts across the snowy cobblestone street. “I want what’s best for you.” 

“Stop talking.” 

“Elektra, you’re not going to Exegol.” 

She rushed him, swiped and stabbed with a series of blows. She was faster now, the lightsaber more like an extension of herself than a separate weapon but he countered easily. Elektra swung again and he dodged as her lightsaber sliced through a basket that contained red berries that poured onto the street. 

Elektra peers down to see red berries coming out of nowhere, brighter than blood against the white floor of Kylo’s quarters. Her breath hitched in her throat. They were together  _ and _ they were separate, in each other’s minds and spaces, but she ended up not caring. She just wanted to land a blow, to hurt him, to show him that she didn’t need his protection. 

Their blades sizzled with impact as they fought, clashing before Kylo circled them down into the floor, catching her blade with his crossguards. She grunts, getting upset and throws up her lightsaber to get him off her weapon which sent him back. 

Elektra kept on swinging, Kylo blocking all of her hits, not fighting back as she kept on going and conjured all of her strength into each and every blow. Kylo bats her lightsaber away and she grunts, exhaling through her nose as he steps back to give them space. 

“Tell me where you are,” Kylo says. “You don’t know the whole story.” 

Elektra swings her arm to the left side of her body and brings up her lightsaber, striking down in an arch and Kylo blocks it with his. The blades crackling and spitting sparks. 

She runs behind him, twirling the lightsaber across her body and in her hand as he turns to face her. 

“I’m just trying to protect you.” He informs her patiently, hoping it’d somehow calm her down from trying to harm him and give into the anger that she was feeling. “If you go, the Emperor gets what he wants.”

Elektra circled him slowly, looking for an opening. Anything to get him to stop talking. 

“I know you’ve seen it too. Sitting on the throne of the Sith. You’ll give in, just like how Anakin did.” 

“No!” Elektra screams, launching at Kylo. 

Their blades clashed, hummed with impact, and all at once she glimpsed his location, or maybe she was actually there for a split second. The shadowy stone rooftops, the icy air. Kijimi. He had probably just missed her. 

She was having no luck getting past his guard, so she swung blindly, chaotically. He moved to block but her hit was so powerful that it rockets both of their lightsabers into the pedestal. It shattered into pieces, Vader’s mask tumbling toward the ground and . . . vanished. 

Elektra gasps, realizing what she just had done and whips her head to her brother, seeing him staring down where the mask had disappeared on the white floor. “So that’s where you are.” 

She throws another swung, him jerking back and runs around her as she spins, bringing down her blade for him to only block it. Their lightsabers lock in place, spitting sparks. 

“I’ll see you soon.” 

All went silent. Her vision of him winked out. Her own breathing was loud in her ears. The shattered black remains of the pedestal were strewn at her feet but not the berries. 

There was no time. She had to get everyone off this ship now, before her brother returned. She turned off her lightsaber, clipping it back to her belt and grabbed Chewie’s things, reaching for the dagger; hesitating then hefting it. Off she went, sprinting for the freighter. 

Elektra peered around the one corner, seeing C-3PO being questioned outside the ship by Stormtroopers. “What’s your operating number?” 

The droid responded with an unintelligible soup of syllables. 

“That’s not even a language.” 

Elektra lined up her shots with Chewie’s bowcaster and fired three shots. The Stormtroopers crumpled to the ground as she ran out, checking around to see two more and fired again. Direct hits. 

“Oh, dear!” C-3PO shouts. “My first laser battle.”

“Where are the others?” She asked him, handing over the bowcaster. 

“They haven’t come back.” 

A TIE screamed into the hangar bay and landed hard.  _ He _ was on that fighter, and he was looking for her. 

“Find them.” Elektra began thrusting everything she was carrying at C-3PO; the dagger, Chewie’s satchel. “Go.” Better for them to take their chances inside the maze of a Star Destroyer than face Kylo Ren. 

Hux had good news for Finn, Poe, and Rey: The Millennium Falcon had been commandeered by the First Order and was right here on the Steadfast. Finn could hardly believe their luck. They could save the ship and get away in it, but they’d have to be quick. And they’d have to leave the droids behind. Finn would come back for them somehow. And Elektra. 

General Hux led the way. They passed officers and Stormtroopers, droids and maintenance crew, and although a giant, hairy Wookie occasionally made someone do a double take, Hux’s presence gave them unhindered passage through the ship’s corridors. 

“Friends ahead.” 

Finn spun, seeing the droids and C-3PO looking ridiculous in Chewie’s bandolier, and carrying the Wookie’s satchel and bowcaster. 

“Oh, yes, there they are!” 

Poe seemed as relieved as Finn felt. “BB-8, come on!” The pilot urged. 

Hux hustled them toward a door. “I’ll shut down the impeders. You’ve got seconds.” 

The general opened the door revealing the Falcon, unscathed except for the entrance lock, which was a conspicuous mess of charred wires. No worries; Rose and Rhys could have that lock working in no time. 

“There she is,” said Poe. “She’s a survivor.”

They headed toward the ship, but Finn was stopped by Hux. “Wait. Wait. Blast me in the arm. Quick.” 

“What?”

“Or they’ll know.”

Finn raised his blaster, aiming at his shoulder but he really wanted to make him hurt. So at the last second, he drops his aim to his leg and shoots, doing as much external skin damage as possible. Hux grunted as he fell back onto his back, and sweat broke out on his suddenly red face. 

“Why are you helping us?” Finn sneered at him. Hux hated the Resistance. Hated them all. Finn was certain of it.” 

“I don’t care if you win.” Hux spat out through his pain. “I need Kylo Ren to lose.” 

Finn then felt something. A gut feeling. He was holding something back. Finn steps closer to the wounded general. “Lose  _ what _ ?” 

Finn spent the last few minutes trying to piece a few things together. 

Ren had visited Chewie, apologizing to him and told the Wookie that he was trying to keep Elektra safe. Ren had been searching for the ‘scavenger’ and yet when Rey was presented to Pryde, he disregarded her. Chewie said it was a codename that Kylo used for Elektra which Finn theorized that it was probably so the First Order would believe that the newest Supreme Leader had no weakness but if you were Finn, or even Hux, you’d know that his number one weakness was always Elektra. 

Kylo knew of Exegol, of Palpatine being alive before the Resistance and had told his generals. That was until Hux told Boolio and Boolio told them which they then delivered the news to the Resistance, and what had brought them on this journey in the first place. 

That’s when it clicked together for Finn. 

Hux gave the information to the Resistance in hopes of spiteing Elektra to try and go there to face Palpatine. And since then that’s why Kylo has been following them, because as Chewie said, he’s trying to keep her safe. 

Finn’s grip loosens on the blaster pistol. “ _ Elektra. _ ” He whispers and Hux couldn’t keep back his smug expression. 

The hatch opened and Kylo emerged, his face hidden behind his mask, and his cloak whipped at his heels. They both circled each other like stalking wolves, slow and intense. An audience formed around them as Stormtroopers charged into the hangar to watch. 

Elektra remembered what her mother said to her.  _ Don’t be afraid of who you are. _ Spoken to her as she was wrapped in a loving embrace, with no trace of judgment. Only acceptance. 

The memory filled her with resolve. With strength. “You promised to tell me the whole story. I’m listening.” 

He stepped toward her. “Palpatine wants you to go to Exegol because he saw what you would become. You have extraordinary power. You have Vader’s power.” 

Dread was a dark miasma, filling her until she was sick with it. She knew what he was going to say. She _ knew _ it.

“Our mother was his daughter, one of us was bound to fulfill his shoes. I figured it’d be me but it had become you.” 

Elektra backed away toward the hangar entrance, away from his words, away from the certainty rising within her. It was true. She sensed it. 

“But what Palpatine doesn’t know is that we have a power of our own. We’re a dyad in the Force, Elektra. Two that are one.” 

Her heart stopped. The _ dyad _ . Something that their Uncle Luke used to joke about when they were children. It was an old ancient Jedi prophecy, just like the Chosen One, about two Force sensitive beings that share a connection that spans across space and time. 

Elektra continued to the abyss where the hangar ended and the high atmosphere of Kijimi began. She peered over, gauged the distance to the hazy ground. Too high a jump, even with the help of the Force. 

“If you want to kill him, we’ll do it together.” Kylo said. 

He removed his mask. A gesture of vulnerability. Of trust. It suddenly occurred to her how long it had been since she’d seen his face. Sure, she had seen him during her training vision and in the Pasaana desert but not this close. The scar on his cheek had faded, but it would still mark him forever. 

“You know what you need to do,” his eyes were soft and his voice was tender. “You know.” 

He extends his left black gloved hand to her. 

She looked at it. Remembered. The last time he’d extended a hand to her had been in the wreckage of Snoke’s throne room. Their combined power had defeated him. It was true that together they could do such incredible things. 

Instantly, she sensed a weight at her back and along with it, Rey and Finn, their presence a bright beacon of light, piercing the dark. 

“I do know.” She told Kylo, turning towards the abyss. 

The Falcon rose before her. Stormtroopers volleyed blasts at the ship, but the Falcon swiveled on an invisible axis. Poe hit the thrusters, blowing back everything in the hangar. Stormtroopers slid away helplessly. 

Elektra braced herself. She sensed Kylo doing the same behind her. The Falcon remained hovering in the air as the access ramp descended, revealing Finn, wearing a breather. “El!” He called. “Come on!”

Debris flew past her, kicked up by the wash of the Falcon’s engines as she turned back to Kylo one last time. “You can’t stop me.” 

She then sprinted for the edge, then launched herself toward the Falcon with help of the Force. Finn grabbed her arm before she could sail by, and swung her onto the ramp. They dash into the Falcon’s belly as the ramp rose, closing them in, and the floor shuddered beneath her feet as Poe whipped the ship around and hit the accelerator. 

Elektra found herself engulfed in a giant, hairy hug as Chewie lifted her up into his arms like how he used to when she was toddler. She allowed herself to feel small, wrapping her tiny arms around the Wookie’s neck and took a deep breath. She got Chewie back. She hadn’t killed him. But the fact remained that she had lost control. The only reason he wasn’t dead was pure, dumb luck. 

She’d lost control twice since then, with Kylo. Something had been happening to her, and she finally understood what it was. The darkness growing inside of her; it all made sense now. She was becoming a Vader. 

Chewie sat her down and Rey exited the cockpit, smiling at Elektra. “I’m glad you’re alright.” She threw her into a hug and squeezed tight. “Didn’t think I’d ever see you again.” 

“What a shame that would’ve been.” Elektra replies into Rey’s shoulder. 

“Elektra,” Rey whispers. “I need to tell you something . . .”

She braced herself, backing away from Rey to see her face. “What is it?” 

Rey went to open her mouth but Finn hurried out of the cockpit, running past them, saying, “Gear regulator’s out. Rey, some help?” He then paused when he saw Elektra’s face. “You okay?” 

Elektra forced a smile, nodding. “Yeah.” 

Finn glances to Rey, giving her a look and she excused herself, following Finn back to start repairs. 

Chewie headed into the cockpit to help and Elektra stood there a moment, a little relieved to be alone. She just needed to collect her thoughts. She leaned against the wall outside the cockpit and closed her eyes. 

From inside came the sound of alarms beeping, then Chewie asking why they weren’t being followed. 

“I don’t know why they’re not following us, but I don’t trust it.” Poe tells him. 

_ The dagger. _ Elektra immediately thought. He must’ve already known where they were going. She was putting her friends in danger just by being here. Her brother would always find her, no matter what. 

Chewie began giving Poe a rundown of damage to the Falcon. 

“Landing gear’s busted? How busted?” 

Chewie told him to look at the readout himself if Poe didn’t believe him.

“Well,” Poe says. “That’s something else we gotta fix.” 

Rey and Finn were trying to fix the gear regulator in companionable silence for a while. Sparks shot up from the panel as they rewired, welded, and tested. 

At last, Finn said, “Hux wasn’t trying to help the Resistance.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“He was still being his weasel self.” He replies, giving the command junction one last solder as Rey lowered her electroprobe. “He only did it to get at Ren.” 

“Why would he do that?” 

“Hurting him means hurting El,” Finn stares at her, his face considerate and worried. “You know about Palpatine and El’s family, everything he did to them, and you remember the moment she heard about him being alive.” 

Rey did. Elektra’s main focus was on how he puppeteered everything and created Ben into Kylo Ren. Elektra used to blame herself for allowing him to turn, she still did which was why she was so desperate to turn him back to the light but with the news of Palpatine, it gave her resentment rather than relief. Because in Elektra’s mind, it meant she willingly teamed up with Palpatine to pull off the stunt. 

“He told us on purpose . . .” Rey began catching on to what Finn had figured out. 

Finn nods. “That’s why Ren told Chewie that he’s trying to save her. Rey, I think her going to Exegol is going to turn her.” 

“To the dark?” Rey couldn’t believe her ears. “Finn, she would never do that. She left the First Order with you, remember? She chose to become a Jedi. Like Luke.” 

Finn wanted to tell Rey what she had told him, about her vision on the throne. But she had trusted him with that information and he didn’t want to betray it, and Rey did have a point. Elektra did choose the good side of things, to follow her own path and what wasn’t laid out before her. He knew her better than Poe or Rey, but that was the problem. He did know her but not as much as Kylo did. And if Kylo was afraid of her facing Palpatine, then he should be too. They all should be. 

Finn felt a new presence and turned, seeing Elektra standing there and noticed how she had taken off her hat and her ponytail out. She now wore it half up and down in a ponytail, it reminded him of her look in the First Order except this time, she didn’t braid any of it. It was just normal and simple. The next thing he noticed was the jacket she wore, it wasn’t the one of Han’s that she been wearing, it was her old one from the First Order. Black, leather, and fitted to her small form. 

“Landing gear is busted.” She tells them. 

“On it.” Rey nods, giving Finn a sideways glance before striding off and leaving the two of them alone. 

Finn drew in a deep breath. “What did Ren say to you, in the hangar?” 

“It’s not important. What matters is the wayfinder.” Elektra says, feeling dazed. “Getting to Exegol.” 

“El?” Finn paused to stare at her. 

“I’m going to find Palpatine. And destroy him.” She could feel Finn’s eyes on her as he considered her words. 

“That doesn’t sound like you. I know you, I know—”

“Everyone keeps on saying that. But what if they’re wrong? What if you’re wrong?” She gulps harshly. “ _ I _ don’t even know myself.” 

A new Elektra was rising inside her, struggling to break free. She’d spent so much time and energy getting to know a new Elektra already; one who could use the Force and fight for a greater cause. But maybe that Elektra was just a skin to be shed. A temporary person. 

She hated herself for leaving Luke’s Jedi Temple more than ever now. This must be why they identified children so young in the days of the Jedi Order. They needed a foundation, knowledge, care, because the only way to survive their awakening into power was to be surrounded by those who had done it all before. But Anakin had done that, and she knew how that turned out. 

There was no hope for Elektra. She was taught fighting by the Knights of Ren, taught why the Jedi Order should be dead and gone by Luke, and was trained by Leia who had stopped her training at an age younger than what Elektra was now. 

Elektra took a deep breath, heading straight back to the lobby of the Falcon after she gave Finn, her dear friend, an apologetic look. 

Leia held her breath. Lieutenant Connix had run to fetch her the moment they’d received the signal, but it was coded.  _ Please be the Falcon, _ she thought. 

She listened on her headset as Beaumont worked the console controls, decrypting. A red light turned blue, and the console beeped. 

Beaumont grinned. “We’re picking up their flight signature! General, the Falcon’s flying again!” 

Leia couldn’t seven savor her relief because a wave of weakness washed over her, making her stumble. The headset was suddenly too hot and tight. She jerked it off, let it fall to the ground. 

**_Leia,_ ** her brother’s maddening voice came to her. **_It’s time._ **

_ I can’t, _ she told him.  _ There’s too much to do. _

She felt his understanding, his love, maybe even a touch of amusement.  **_There is only one thing left,_ ** he said.  **_And then you can rest._ **

Dizziness overtook her. She felt herself falling, the edges of the world caving in on her. She was vaguely aware of Kaydel and Rhy’s arms wrapping around her, boosting her. 

“General?” Worry was in Rhy’s voice. 

They guided her to her quarters. Leia just needed to lie down for a bit. That’s all. 

General Armitage Hux stood before Allegiant General Pryde, several Stormtroopers beside them. His leg wound had been smothered in bacta gel and bandaged. Now his leg was uncomfortably warm and a little bit itchy. Small price to pay for getting away with treason and murder. 

“It was a coordinated incursion, Allegiant General,” Hix reported, using a cane to hold himself up and put weight off his injured leg. “They overpowered the guards and forced me to take them to their ship.” 

Pryde stared at him a moment, nose high, eyes narrowed. “I see.” 

Hux kept his face perfectly, determinedly blank. The bandage around his pants was stained with blood. A good showing that would bolster his account, he thought. But beneath his pant leg, a bit of bacta gel had oozed through the bandage and begun to slither, wet and warm, down his leg. 

Pryde’s perpetual frown deepened. Something flashes in his eyes, something Hux had never seen before. 

Pryde turned to the unit leader. “Get me the Supreme Leader.” Then he grabbed the Stormtrooper’s rifle, pointed it at Hux, and shot him point blank in the chest. 

Hux was not dead before he hit the ground. His mouth opened and closed soundlessly as flashes of pain lit up every fiber of his being. 

“Tell him we found our spy,” he heard Pryde say. 

His last thought was of Elektra. He hated that girl. She had ruined everything. Yet, she was a warrior; tough minded, protective, and unwilling to be controlled. It gave him one bright shining spark of hope against the oncoming dark: Ren might still lose his sister to Palpatine. 

Then that spark, too, was consumed by darkness, and Hux knew no more. 

Kylo Ren was in the hangar, seeing how they lost four Troopers, one cargo pilot, and two maintenance workers when the Falcon’s engine wash had flooded the hangar, pushing them into the high atmosphere of Kijimi. It didn’t bother him too much, he knew that the First Order should perish for everything they’ve done. For everything Hux ordered them to do like blasting the New Republic to bits. For him ordering the massacre on Jakku’s Tuanul Village. All of it. 

The remaining maintenance crew had quickly restored the hangar to working order, but small fires burned throughout the bay. A few Troopers lay injured on the floor; one bled badly from a leg wound. 

When Kylo Ren met up with General Allegiant Pryde and was told that Hux was the spy, he felt no anger, only deserve. He  _ deserved _ it. After all he’s done, he deserved the betrayal and for Elektra to continue on her mission without him, but like her, he was stubborn too. 

He kept on seeing her face, the way her lips had parted with surprise, the way her body had canted toward him. If the Falcon hadn’t appeared, he’d like to believe that she would’ve taken his hand. 

“Should we pursue the scavenger?” Pryde questions. 

He glances at him, his face covered by his mask once again. “You scanned the dagger?” 

“Of course, sir.” 

“Then we know where she’s going.” 


	18. Act of Hope

The fact that the Millennium Falcon was transmitting again had probably already traveled base wide, but Leia sensed it was time for a motivational talk. She ordered everyone to gather so she could officially report. It was the perfect time for good news. A brief tropical storm had dropped the temperature. Birds chattered in the jungle canopy above, celebrating the delightful coolness. 

“I’m very pleased to report that the Millennium Falcon sent us a transmission on long-range.” She spoke. “Their mission is back on track.” 

People clapped one another on the back. She saw smiles. Connix and Rose even hugged. This had been the right choice. 

“Our hope is with them, but our work is here. Commander Tico reports that the two fighters we liberated from the Corellian scrapyard are now flight ready.” 

More applause. 

“My congratulations and thanks to the entire Engineering Corps for pulling off that miracle. But our work has just begun—”

**_Leia._ ** Of course he chose the end of her speech to interrupt. 

_ You’re becoming a pest, _ she told Luke.

She felt his smile.  **_Time to say goodbye,_ ** he said

_ Not just yet . . . _

But the word she’d been planning got stuck in her mouth, and instead she ended with, “I’m so proud of all of you. As long as we never lose hope, our cause lives on.” 

She stumbled a little on the way to her quarters, but Connix and Rhys were there in a flash to support her. 

As they headed past the Tantive IV, she overheard R2-D2 ask Maz a question. 

“She knows what she has to do.” Maz told him. “To reach her children now will take all she has left.” 

Kef Bir was technically a moon of Endor, but to Elektra it seemed like a whole world. Flying into the atmosphere had revealed vast seas interrupted by tentative patches of the land, covered mostly with grass. Shrubbery was scarce, settlements nonexistent. 

C-3PO had connected with the HoloNet and informed them that Kef Bir used to be almost entirely underwater. But recent decades had seen several cataclysmic events, which had vented water into the atmosphere and caused tectonic upheaval, revealing more and more landmasses. Some theorized that the destruction of the second Death Star was to blame. Debris from the moon sized base not only had rained down for years, but had collided with several nearby asteroids, creating a chain reaction of bolide hits to the moon’s surface and atmosphere. 

Kef Bir had calmed in the past decade, and life was finding a hold. The moon was rumored to have even attracted a small number of settlers and refugees, though this was unconfirmed, and the moon’s official designation remained “uninhabited”.

Rey hadn’t been able to fix the landing gear and repulsors entirely by the time they arrived, just enough to slow their impact a little. Which was why, when they all exited the Falcon bruised and shellshocked, it was to the sight of a massive scar in the damp ground, running behind them in a straight line as far as the eye could see. 

Elektra’s ship fuselage was half buried in mud, and they’d had to exit out of the top hatch, but the Falcon remained almost flightworthy, and with a few repairs and a little luck they’d be able to take off. 

After Elektra had gotten what she’d come for. 

The air smelled of salt and sun kissed grass. Water prickled her skin, as though something was kicking up spray. The sky roiled with angry grey clouds, but everything remained bright, for the gas giant Endor provided reflected light in addition to the system’s sun. 

Elektra led them up a steep, grassy slope, following the coordinates they’d gotten from C-3PO. Even the droids followed; D-O uniwheel was surprisingly effective against the grassy terrain. 

Her breath came hard and her legs burned by the time their heads crested the top. Then Elektra forgot to breathe at all. 

The stood on the edge of a cliff at least six hundred meters high. Below them, a violent steel sea stretched into fog. Swells the height of a Star Destroyer rolled back to reveal jagged black shoals, only to crash back down in an explosion of white water and froth. So much water, all in one place, carving cliffs, spearing the sky, spraying them with wetness, even at this distance.

The fog was clearing, and their view of the ocean pushed farther and farther into the horizon. A shape began to emerge, like a mountain of metal. No, a whole mountain  _ range _ of metal. Beside her, Finn gasped. 

It was a ship, or rather remains of one, except this ship was larger than any ship Elektra had ever seen. Its tattered hull arched out of the violent swells like an upside down bowl, the jagged remains of its superlaser focus lens aimed at the sky. 

“What-what is that?” D-O asked. 

“It’s the Death Star,” Elektra said, staring at the colossal wreck. “It’s a bad place, from an old war.” 

“I don’t think General Leia had any idea this was here,” Poe said, his voice filled with wonder. “A huge chunk of the second Death Star, still intact . . .”

“Of course not, Master Poe!” C-3PO said. “It was likely submerged for more than a decade after the Battle of Endor. A terrible battle, according to the HoloNet. Oh, I would  _ hate _ to endure something so dreadful.” 

_ But you did, _ Elektra mentally said. 

BB-8 warbled a question. 

“From the sky.” Rey tells him. 

“The wayfinder’s in the Imperial Vaults,” Finn said, as if saying the words would help him believe it. “In the Death Star.” 

“I hate to be practical,” Poe started to say, “but it’s gonna take us years to find what we’re looking for.” 

Poe was right. How do you search something the size of a moon? Where do you even start?

Elektra blinks, remembering. “From the southern shore, only this blade tells.” 

She retrieved the dagger of Ochi’s, holding up its wicked edge so that it shimmered in the light. The shape of the blade lining up perfectly with the outline of the wreck. 

Poe, Rey, and Finn moved closer towards her to see what she was doing. 

Elektra peers closer. The daggard’s crossguard was hinged. Keeping the blade aligned exactly where it was, she used her other hand to gently swing the crossguard down until it clicked into place. It pointed out a very specific section of ruin, southwest of the superlaser lens: a star shaped structure, nestled in a crook of the hutting wreckage. 

“The wayfinder’s there,” Elektra states. 

C-3PO’s coordinates hadn’t been the location of the wayfinder; instead they’d indicated exactly where to stand so that the dagger would show them the way. 

“Heads up,” Poe warned. 

Elektra turns, twirling the dagger’s blade into her palm and held it as Rey readied her quarterstaff and Finn and Poe whipped up their blasters. 

A young woman about Elektra’s age rode toward them atop a creature that looked like a fathier with tusks except they were large boned and with a more generous coat of fur. The woman had dark skin like Finn’s, and beautiful obsidian hair that framed her face like a halo. The only weapon she carried that Elektra could see was a bow, and she noticed it was made out of salvaged blaster parts.    
Then nearly a dozen others rode up behind her, similarly mounted and armed. 

“Rough landing.” The woman spoke up.    
Poe shrugged. “I’ve seen worse.” 

“I’ve seen better,” she replies with a grin. “Are you Resistance?” 

“That depends.” 

“We picked up a transmission from someone named Babu Frik.” 

Poe lowered his blaster. 

“Babu Frik!” C-3PO exclaimed. “Oh, he’s one of my oldest friends!”

“He said you’d come. He said you were the last hope.” 

Elektra stepped forward, feeling a smidge of optimism. “We need to get out to that wreck. There’s something inside we need.” 

The rider considered a moment, then said, “I can take you there by water. We have fishing skimmers.” 

“Have you seen the water?” Finn eyes her. 

“Not now. Too dangerous.” She agreed. “We can get there at low tide. First light tomorrow.” 

“We can’t wait that long.” Elektra defended. “We don’t have time.” 

“Or a choice.” Poe turns, staring at her. “Let’s get that ship fixed.” 

“My brother could be here at any moment!” She snaps at Poe, unintentionally of course, but a part of her meant it. “We don’t have the time, Poe. You’ve said that. We need that wayfinder!” 

“El, El!” Finn captures her attention and she whips her head to him. “Your hand.” 

Confused, she stared down at her right hand, seeing that she clenched the blade so hard that edges dug into her palm and blood was seeping through her fist and fingers, dripping onto the ground. 

“Yeah.” She mumbles, opening up her hand and to see the coated dagger. Elektra didn’t even feel it. 

With mutual understanding, they then all headed down the hillside toward the Falcon, except Elektra and Rey. Elektra kept gazing out over the ocean at the wreckage of the Death Star and Rey just looks at her sadly. 

“Elektra?” 

“We’re so close.” 

“Your hand,” she reminds her gently, placing her own hand into Elektra’s left. “We need to take care of it. Okay?” Elektra just nodded, giving the girl’s hand a comforting squeeze as they followed their friends. 

The riders had dismounted to let their creatures graze and work out some kinks. Orbaks, the woman Jannah called them. Finn thought they were great, the way they kicked up dirt when they ran, tossed their long manes, play-fought with their huge tusks. They were a lot like the fathier he and Rose had ridden on Canto Bight, except joyful and free. Also stouter, built for endurance and cold weather. 

He smiled as an orbak snuffled BB-8. It made a noise, half grunt, half whinny. BB-8 imitated it with limited success. 

“Hello!” The little cone droid stares up at it. 

The orbak tossed its mane and roared in response, not an unfriendly gesture, but the tiny droid recoiled. “No, thank you. No thank you.” He said as BB-8 tried to assure him that the orbak was friendly. 

Finn then noticed how Rey and Elektra were sitting in the grass; Rey tenderly took the dagger from Elektra and laid it next to her, tearing a piece of fabric from her one sash and tenderly started wrapping Elektra’s hand. He frowned, turning to ask Jannah for a few parts.

Rey began fishing in her bag and took out Han’s jacket, holding it to Elektra for her to use it as a blanket. The girl shook her head, staring out at the Death Star. 

“How are you feeling?” 

“Like we’re wasting time.” Elektra just stayed silent for a moment. “We should be out there. Not here, moping about, fixing the Falcon.” 

“Because of Kylo?” Rey questioned softly. 

Elektra nods. “He’ll be here any minute, I just know it.” 

Rey’s eyes drift to the blood covered blade of Ochi’s and back to Elektra’s wrapped hand, seeing blood already soaking into it. In about thirty minutes, she’d need another wrap for it. 

Rey wanted to tell Elektra her feelings but she decided that now wasn’t the best time considering what they had gone through during the last hours of their lives, and Elekra desperately needed rest. She could see the dark circles under the girl’s eyes beginning to form. 

Elektra peers over, catching her stare and Rey freezes in place. She never realized just how bright her eyes looked with the blue-green hues mixing together. Or how long her eyelashes were whenever they blinked tenderly. 

“What?” Elektra utters sheepishly to Rey. 

She just smiled, shaking her head. “Nothing.” Rey clears her mind, nodding. “You should get some rest, alright? I’m going to help with the Falcon.”

The older girl nods, seeing her stand up and dusting off her pants. “Okay.”

Rey grabs the dagger, walking over to where BB-8 and D-O were. “BB-8, do me a favor?” 

He warbles in response. 

“Keep an eye out on her for me, think you can do that?” 

He chirps and she thanks him, taking one last look at Elektra and enters the Falcon.

“What a dreadful situation,” C-3PO was saying, as he and Poe ran a diagnostic on the forward shields. “Is every day like this for you people? Madness!”

“Did we ever find his volume control?” Poe asked Chewie who was helping out in the cockpit.

Chewie grumbled.

Their crash landing had also damaged the Falcon’s reserve atmo tank, though it wasn’t yet leaking. Fixing it now would prevent a much larger problem later. Rey got to work with Finn, glad to have something to fill the time, to distract herself from worrying about Elektra.

A while later, Jannah entered, carrying a small rez cylinder. Exactly what her and Finn needed to patch the tank. “It’s an O-6, but should work.” 

“Thank you.” Finn took the cylinder, staring at it. “This is a First Order part.” 

“There’s an old cruiser on the west ridge. Stripped for parts.” She paused like she was coming to a decision, then added cautiously, “The one we were assigned to. The one we escaped in.” 

“You were First Order?” Rey gives her a look, taking the part out of Finn’s hands and goes back to working.

“Not by choice,” she clarified and Finn crawled out from the grating, sitting up on the floor as he let his feet dangle. “Conscripted as kids. All of us. I was TZ-1719. Stormtrooper.” 

Well, that explained the bow made of blaster parts, and the armband containing a transponder. 

“FN-2187.” Finn told her with excitement. 

“You?” 

He nodded. “I never knew there were more.” 

“Deserters. All of us here were Stormtroopers. We mutinied at the Battle of Ansett Island. They told us to fire on civilians.” 

Finn winched. He knew exactly how that felt. 

“We wouldn’t do it,” Jannah informed him. “We laid down our weapons.” 

“All of you?” 

She nods. “The whole company. I don’t even know how it happened. Wasn’t even a decision really. More like—”

“An instinct. A feeling.” He finished for her. 

She looked at him in surprise. “Yeah. A feeling.” 

Finn was nodding again. “The Force,” he said, emphatically. “It brought me here. Brought me to Elektra, to Rey and Poe.” 

“You say that like you’re sure it’s real.” 

“Oh, it’s very real. I wasn’t sure then. But . . .” He glances down to Rey, smiling and thinking about Elektra before returning Jannah’s stare. “I am now.” 

BB-8 entered the Falcon, heading directly to the cockpit and found Poe, beeping. 

“What is it, buddy?” Poe kneeled down to him, furrowing his brows. 

He warbled. 

Poe instantly went wide eyed. “What do you mean you haven’t seen her?” He then got to thinking, standing up. “Finn!” He shouts. “Rey!”

As one, they all rushed from the Falcon. Droids trailing, they clambered up the rise. Finn raised his quadnocs and swept his gaze across the sea, finally seeing Elektra and passed the ‘nocs to Poe. 

“She took the skimmer?” Jannah said in disbelief. 

“What the hell was she thinking?” Poe began trotting away, heading towards the ship.

Finn knew exactly what she was thinking; she was going after the Sith alone, in a misguided attempt to keep her friends from harm. Stupid, wonderful, maddening Elektra. “We gotta go after her,” he said. 

“We’ll fix the Falcon and get out there as fast as we can,” Poe replies. 

Finn followed. “No. We’re going to lose her!” His voice was rising. _ Lose her _ , not necessarily to death. Possibly to something else. 

Rey stayed with Jannah and Chewie, saying nothing as they argued.

“Look, she left us!” Poe glanced over his shoulder, at Finn. “What do you wanna do? Swim?”

“She’s not herself. You have no idea what she’s fighting.” 

Poe stopped. Whirled. “And you do?” 

Finn pauses. “Yeah, I do. And so does Leia.” 

“Well, I’m not Leia.” Poe pokes Finn in the chest with his finger. 

Finn then bats his hand away, taking the quadnocs back, pointing his own finger in front of the pilot’s face. “That’s for damn sure, because if you were, you’d care about Elektra.”

Poe recoiled as if struck, and guilt pierced Finn. That had been too harsh. Too close to the truth of Poe’s worries and fears. But Finn had been right and even Poe knew that. 

Finn climbed back up to the rise, lifting the quadnocs and gazed out across the ocean. Elektra’s stiff was barely more than mote against the turbulent water. He had no idea how she was managing to navigate that thing, how she hadn’t capsized yet. 

He lowered his quadnocs. He couldn’t swim to her, that would be suicide. Maybe Poe was right and the only thing to do was repair the Falcon as fast as possible. 

“Finn.” Rey’s voice came as she and Jannah ran up behind him. 

“There’s another skimmer.” Jannah informs.

Hope stabbed through him.

Elektra kept on grunting in effort as the skimmer she’d stolen was a marvel of recycling ingenuity, with two pontoons made for cutting through waves, bouncing over rough water, turning with her slightest touch of the rudder. But the waves were higher than buildings, creating eddies and whirlpools and massive explosions of froth. It took all her concentration to keep from capsizing. 

The skimmer itself became her enemy when an unexpected wave ripped the rudder from her hand, slamming it sideways and almost knocking her into the water. A few more near disasters and she figured out that she needed to aim for the waves instead of against them, and trust the skimmer to make the climb. 

Soaked and shivering, she pushed toward the Death Star, toward the exact spot identified by the dagger. The star shaped chamber was so high, so isolated. But maybe she could reach it by climbing up the inside of the structure, sheltered somehow from the waves. The wreckage loomed higher and larger as she approached. Water churned against the massive hull, pulled back to reveal tantalizing access points, only to crash back and drown them in the next moment. Elektra had no idea how she would get on board with her life intact. 

She crested another wave, and her heart leapt into her throat as the skimmer dropped down the other side. She was too close to the wreck. Her momentum was going to slam her into the hull, shatter the skimmer into a thousand pieces . . .

Instead, her skimmer was sucked into a vast canyon of metal that stretched nearly to the horizon. Here the water was somewhat sheltered by the warped walls scraping the sky to either side. Her journey slowed. Compared with the open ocean, it was almost peaceful. She craned her neck. Flying creatures nested far above at the canyon’s zenith. They winged in circles, crying out as they came in to land. 

She aimed the skimmer toward a section of wall that seemed to have good handholds and footholds. She tied the skimmer down as best as she could, checked that her lightsaber was still attached to her belt, and began to climb. 

She was far above the surface of the water, the skimmer a bobbing speck, when she found entry into the hull. Avoiding sharp metal, she ducked inside and scooted along a canted beam to a wide shaft, where she resumed her climb. It was dried here, but also darker, and she found herself working by feel. 

Her path of handholds ended. There was nowhere to go except across the empty shaft, where a fallen strut created a way forward. It would be an impossible leap but she called on the Force, launching herself with all of her might, sailing through the shaft across a depthless maw and landed on her hands and feet. 

Elektra resumed her climb. Her back and shoulders burned by the time the shaft opened into a vast chamber. The floor sloped upward, slipper with water, covered in seaweed and metal detritus and even pieces of Stormtrooper armor, blackened by fire. Wind whistled through gaping holes in the walls, and she shivered. This place had been something once. Something important to her family. 

Ahead, the sloped floor led to a huge viewport, half shattered, bayed out to the sky. Before it was a dais of some sort, containing the ocean soaked remains of a chair. No, a throne. 

This had been the Emperor’s throne room. Luke had fought Darth Vader here, and the energy and memory of that battle still lingered. She closed her eyes, remembering how she was on Ahch-To and touched the Jedi texts for the first time, being thrown into a Forceback of that very battle. She sensed terror, pain, regret, and a determination to save someone who was deeply loved. 

Elektra then gazed to the walls, seeing an outline of a door that had a complicated access mechanism that marked it as valuable and significant. The Imperial Vault. 

Something clicked and the door wooshed open hissing steam as if it still had a power source, like she’d been recognized. 

She gradually heads into the vault, darkness enveloping her and the door slammed down behind her. She froze, turning back at the closed door and continued on walking through. 

Shapes manifested around her, fragments of a person. It was her, she realized with dawning dismay. She was walking through a hall of shattered mirrors, seeing her own form reflected back at her over and over, like in the cave beneath Ahch-To. Except here the shattered glass only gave her jagged pieces of herself; an arm here, a boot here, a lock of soaking hair, a blood soaked and soggy wet bandage wrapped hand. The shards of reflection were a puzzle that she ached to solve, as thought doing so might make a whole person finally appear. 

No, she would not allow herself to go through this again. The tease, the promise of knowledge and insight, only to come up with nothing. Elektra closed her mind to the mirrors and continued forward, toward what she had been looking for. 

The wayfinder hovered between black fittings, its pyramidal shape glowing soft red from within. She reached for it, took it. 

Triumph filled her. Finally. 

The triumph shifted, became burgeoning dread. She was being watched and slowly, still grasping her wayfinder in her good hand, she turned. 

A hooded figure materialized, glided toward her with inexorable purpose, dark cloak sweeping the ground. The figure practically radiated power, and a cold, ravenous hunger. A red lightsaber was in the figure’s hand but not just any lightsaber, it was Kylo’s lightsaber. Light from the blade illuminated a face that was pale and gaunt as it was fierce, having yellow glowing eyes and wearing black paint that formed into a mask around them. 

Elektra gaspes, stumbling backwards. It was _ her _ . Her face, her form. Cold and dark, wearing a Sith cloak, whole at last. 

Horrified, she watched as the dark mirror Elektra grins and twirls the lightsaber around in her hands. This couldn’t be real. It was a vision, nothing more. But the dark Elektra’s steps echoed when they met the floor, and the saber reeked of ozone. Her power was incredible, intoxicating.

The mirrored dark visage of Elektra spoke. “Don’t be afraid of who you are.” 

It was a lightning strike, hearing her mother’s exact word from this creature’s mouth. 

The dark Elektra whipped her lightsaber forward, seeking a killing blow. Elektra had her own lightsaber ignited and raised within a split second. Their blades clashed, blue on red, sparking and angry. 

Elektra refused to lose her grasp on the wayfinder, which gave the dark Elektra the advantage. With two hands on her weapon and a fierce gaze, the dark one pushed her off and kept swinging, Elektra blocking and dodging as she was forced back. 

She strikes downwards and dark Elektra thrusts up her weapon, catching the blue blade in between the quillon and main blade of hers, snapping her wrist directly down to the left; pinning Elektra’s weapon in place. 

Her stomach roiled and tears were filling her eyes. She was about to be defeated by her own self, her deepest fear made flesh, everything she’d fought for come to nothing. 

The dark Elektra grins evilly at her, yellow staring straight into her before snarling, revealing pointed teeth. 

Elektra barely registered the fact that her dark mirror self disappeared as she stumbled backward, tripping. She fell, the wayfinder tumbling out from her hand. It slid across the sloped floor and she watched it, about to scramble for it but another hand got there first. A large, black gloved hand. She hurried to her feet, despair nearly choking her. To escape a future dark self, only to collide with her brother. Kylo Ren.

He holds the wayfinder out in front of himself, his shoulders dimpled with drops of ocean. He was maskless because he didn’t need to hide, not from her. His eyes then flicker to hers and from that small nonlethal act, she reignited her lightsaber. 

Kylo let his arm slump down at his side. “Look at yourself. You’re turning into something that you’re not.” He spoke. “You wanted to prove that you were Jedi to our mother but you’re trying to prove something else. Once that happens, you can’t go back to her. Like I can’t.” 

His eyes glistened because he had been taught that from the voices inside his head, from the day that Luke’s Jedi Temple had exploded into flames.  _ You can’t go back to your family. They won’t accept you. They won’t love you. They’ll hate you for what you did. And they’ll never take you back.  _ He didn’t want that fate to fall on Elektra. 

Kylo’s words had cleared Elektra’s head because he was wrong. Her darkest self had told her not to be afraid of who she was. But so had her mother, Leia. 

“Give it to me,” she ordered. 

Kylo shudders, unnerved by his sister’s demeanor. “The dark side is in our nature,” he tried again. “You’ll succumb to it.” 

“Give it. To me. Kylo.” She said, pushing with the Force. 

_ Kylo. _ The word filled him with dread. She hadn’t called him that in their privacy, only in front of the First Order or others, but never to him alone. With that act, it let him know that she was falling deeper, faster, and farther than he could’ve imagined. There was only one thing left to save her.

He lifted the wayfinder, staring at it before he looked at her. “I’m sorry, but the only way you’re getting to Exegol is with me.” 

His grip tightened and the wayfinder shattered. Something viscous oozed out of the remains, slipping through Kylo’s fingers. The thing she’d come halfway across the galaxy for, risked the lives of her friends for, had been obliterated in mere seconds. 

“No!” She screamed. 

Hot, primal rage rose inside of her like volcanic magma, and she erupted forward, swinging her lightsaber. He leapt out of the way of her blow once, twice, and ducked under the third. He rushed off when he had a moment, sliding down on his knee to where she was standing.

Vaguely, through her haze of fury, she realized that he was not attacking her, and somehow this enraged her futher. She reached, drawing power from the Force as though she were a bottomless whirlpool. More, more, _ more _ . Her attacks increased in speed. 

He ducks another swing of hers, standing up and she jabs for his right shoulder but he moves out of the way. She then brings back the lightsaber, doing a swing around and he rushes back to where he was previously standing to put distance in between them but she was hot on his tracks. Kylo realized that he couldn’t dodge anymore and brought out his lightsaber to protect himself, igniting it just in time as Elektra swung hers above her head and down on his blade. Blue on red, crackling and humming with energy as sparks flew. 

She backs off for a second then swings, him whirling away from her, cape flying. Kylo then jumps backwards, dropping down into the shaft and without a second though, Elektra leapt after him. 

She hardly recalled traveling any distance, but somehow they ended up outside the wreckage, on a bridgelike hunk of metal only meters wide. A massive gun turret loomed over them; beyond it and half drowning in spray was Kylo’s parked TIE. The ocean raged all around, but she pressed her attack, oblivious to the added danger. 

Kylo had no choice but to attack in kind, and it was so satisfying to strike, again and again, only to have their blades clash like cymbals. The impacts shivered into Elektra’s shoulders, bruising her spine and hips. It was better than thinking about what she’d seen, what he’d done. Whose power ran in her veins.

A presence cut through her awareness, shining and bright.

“Elektra!” 

“El!”

It was Rey and Finn. Both running toward her, leaving Jannah behind to watch their skimmer. The last time they had been around Kylo was on Starkiller Base, Rey was thrown back into a tree, knocked out cold and Finn was near death from being torn by Kylo’s lightsaber. That god, awful, hideous lightsaber. Elektra wasn’t gonna let it happen again. She wouldn’t. 

With no thought at all, she spun ferociously around after batting away Kylo’s lightsaber, calling on the Force and thrust out with her good hand, screaming. They both flew backward toward Jannah at the edge of the bridge wreck. A wave crashed down on the stretch between them, cutting Rey, Finn, and Jannah off from Elektra’s sight. 

Kylo may have been physically stronger but Elektra was a little faster. Their sabers collided again, him swinging and she brought hers up vertically to block, double gripping the hilt. He presses on the blade and she does the same, her mind calling back to the snowy forest of Starkiller, when they’ve done this exact holding position. She had been at the edge of a cliff, inexperienced with a lightsaber, but  _ oh how she grown since then _ . Focusing on the connecting blades in front of her face, she looks off to notice a huge wave coming straight for them as the sea boils with a rising tide. Kylo peers back at it, too, slightly worried. 

Elektra spins his blade off of hers, the Force opening itself to her and flooding her with new power. She found herself running and leaping onto another structure of the wreck, Kylo following after, using the Force to launch himself in the sky. She lands down on her feet first, Kylo coming down in a crouch in front and he spins upwards, and around; aiming his lightsaber at her. Elektra pounces, side sweeping it away from her before adding her left hand to the hilt and swings at her brother for him to only block. She then spins on her foot, attacking from the other side and lets out a yell as Kylo blocks her again. 

Jannah helped Finn up onto his feet and he helped Rey, them both around to start running after Elektra again but Jannah stopped them. “No, we can’t follow them!” 

“We can’t leave her!” Finn shouts over the roaring sea. 

“We can’t!” Jannah insists. “There’s nothing we can do now!”

In the distance, they could see Elektra and Kylo still fighting. Every hit being matched by the other and yet, they kept on going. 

**_Leia, there is only one thing left to do. You must try to reach Ben._ **

She flashed back to holding her tiny son in her arms, his black hair still wet with birth, the way he’d cried all the time in those early months with Bre until they sensed that she or Han or Chewie was near. His first steps and how he tried to get Bre to take hers. His first word. The first he’d sent a toy flying across the room with the power of the Force, calling on his tiny, toddler rage. 

_ I never gave up hope for him, _ she said.

**_Tell him,_ ** said Luke.

She couldn’t do it, It would be her ultimate failure, to leave behind everyone she loved, everything she’d worked for. Leia  _ had _ to stay. She had to continue fanning the tiny flame of hope, or the Resistance would die. 

He thumb went back and forth across the cool face of Han’s medal. Her heart had been so full of hope then, after their first big victory against the Empire. Giving these medals to Luke and Han had been more than a public celebration; they’d been a symbolic awarding of leadership. She’s shared the burden ever since that day. 

She sighed with a heavy realization. She’d had it backward. Letting go wasn’t giving up. It was the ultimate act of hope. 

**_Leia,_ ** Luke prompted. 

If Vader could become Anakin again, Kylo Ren could become Ben. Her son was tempted by the light, and had gotten closer to it because of Bre; she could sense it. But even if he never turned back the way Anakin had, she still loved him, and her legacy was secure. She was Leia Skywalker Organa Solo. As she caressed Han’s medal, she fully embraced  _ all _ those interitances. And she would pass them all to the next generation. Her Skywalker legacy would go to Bre, Organa to Poe, and she would try one last time to pass her Solo legacy to her son. 

So that’s how it would be. A final act of hope, and then she would rest. 

Elektra spins, bringing down her lightsaber over her head and it clashes on Kylo’s, his arms dropping down and the connecting blades were directly in his face but his eyes kept on his sister. She was still angry, upset, pure hate in her eyes as she snarled at him. It hurt him to see him like this and even enraged him; all he was trying to do was help and she wasn’t accepting it. And look where it got her; fighting her brother blindlessly and without concern. 

He throws her off but she recovers quickly, batting at him and brings her lightsaber above her head again. Their lightsabers clash once more and she moves around him, lightsabers colliding twice and for a third time. 

Kylo then whirls, stabbing his lightsaber forwards but Elektra brought hers down violently, smacking it directly into the slick metal as she kneeled down and held it there. Sparks flying every which way, white smoke beginning to billow up into their faces and Elektra clenched her jaw, peering up at her brother to see his facial expression. He was impressed but scared, still couldn’t understand why she was doing this.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a colossal oncoming wave. She releases his lightsaber, throwing it off and using the Force to propel herself high and backward.

She landed in a crouch before another gun turret. She looked around. No sign of Kylo Ren. Maybe the wave had washed him away. But she spoke too soon. There he was, striding unerringly toward her, ocean water pouring from his hair, his face. He had withstood the wave. The expression on his face said that he could withstand anything as he flips his lightsaber into a reverse grip and Elektra gritted her teeth, her injured hand tightening on her hilt of her lightsaber which made her fingers spasm from pressure on the cut. 

If she wanted to fight to make her feel better, then he wouldn’t deny her it and give her everything he got. 

Kylo brought his lightsaber up from his right and down in an arc and Elektra ducks, having known that was one of his signature moves. As he turns, swinging the blade out towards her, Elektra throws out her left hand to the blade, using the Force to hold it in place like how she had during their battle on Starkiller Base. She then hits it with hers, them still smacking each other’s blades with every blow and they switch places. Elektra double handed her hilt again and went to swing full force at Kylo but he threw out his left hand like how she did, stopping her momentum suddenly. Quick thinker she was, she backs out of her swing and travels her arms around her head and to the other side for him to block it. 

One swing another, Elektra attacked and he countered but she was tiring, slowing. She hadn’t slept in how long? And she had not yet recovered from healing the vexis. 

Kylo noticed her staggered movements, easing off of her as she was trying to gain her breath. Still, Elektra continued on to her best ability, going for a swing but Kylo effortlessly blocked. She then went for a reverse grip, swinging the lightsaber before her and he deflected it as she spun and brought it underneath to swing upwards but he captured her blade with his and the chillon. Kylo then rotates their lightsabers up and over his head to the right side of her body and she grunts, pushing forwards to try and rocket his lightsaber back into him but he caught onto her trick. He throws their blades up and it releases, him turning to see Elektra dropping her bandaged hand from the hilt, blood dripping down from the cloth and she tries to bring feeling back into it by flexing her digits. 

With her bloody hand, she tries again, swinging from under but Kylo was quick, capturing her blade again and twirls his body to the left. The connecting blades circle around and Elektra winces, pulling to retrieve her lightsaber again from its hold and Kylo knocks it loose by undoing his twirl. She then tries to strike for his stomach but he blocks and begins his series of hits as his own temper begins to fill him. He just wanted her to stop, to listen to him, to not be so hard headed, and if it disarming her to break through her persistence, then it shall be.

Elektra’s arms shook from every block she did, her energy draining out as he began doing her oncoming attack of over the head bring downs. Once and with the second, she got knocked down onto her knees, panting heavily. She then tried to swing but Kylo hit her blade forcefully, causing her to support herself up on her left hand. Elektra attempts again but another powerful blow from her brother causes her left arm to give out and her injured hand to sting from the vibrations, sending her onto her back and the lightsaber tumbling out of her hand. He loomed over her and she stared up at him, scowling. 

Kylo huffs then froze his entire body, sensing something in the Force.

With all the life and love and hope and forgiveness in Leia’s being, she called out: “ _ Ben. _ ” 

He turns slowly, gazing into the horizon, feeling as their mother lowers herself back onto her bed with Han’s medal in her hand and drops his lightsaber which deactivates it. Elektra caught it in a reverse grip, exultation filling her. She was going to  _ win.  _

She stood up with the last ounce of energy she had, her brother distracted and brought back the hilt, igniting the fiery blades and yelling as she pierced him in the stomach. Kylo faces forwards, staring at his sister to see her vicious snarl as he stumbles and hunches himself. 

Leia’s last thought washed throughout the galaxy like a wave and through the Force came a mighty sundering, hitting and washing over Elektra’s soul. It carved her out, leaving her empty. “Mom.” 

She yanks her stolen blade from her brother and turns it off as he collapses down, her eyes drifting down to his lightsaber in her blood covered hand and realizing that the dark mirror self of her had just come to life. 

Elektra drops the hilt, her hands trembling and tears gliding down her cheeks to seek her brother in agony, his chest heaving. He blinked hard, against pain, against whatever he was feeling. Leia’s last thoughts had been of Poe, the Resistance, but mostly Ben and Bre. Leia still loved him. She had forgiven him. Something Snoke told him that would never happen. 

Elektra knelt before him, unsure what to say. His wound was mortal, that was clear. His cheeks were wet, and she couldn’t tell where ocean spray ended and tears began. She never wanted to kill her brother but her anger, her pull to the dark side, it made her do it. And now, she was the monster. 

She reaches out, putting a hand on his chest as she begins breathing heavily. The air filled with a resonant hum. Elektra began drawing on everything around her but mostly she drew on herself. She gave. 

Kylo’s lips parted. His breathing settled. Muscle and sinew and skin were renewed, rejoined. Even the scar on his face knitted closed, leaving his cheek smooth and perfect. His astonished eyes then watch his sister slumping over, exhausted. He was alert, now. Whole. Brimming with life and energy. 

“You were right,” Elektra sniffles, more tears falling down from her eyes as she stares at him. “I did want to take your hand. The one that belonged to my brother. Ben. I just wanted  _ him _ back.”

Before he could respond, Elektra grabbed Luke’s lightsaber. The healing had worn her down, and she was unsteady on her feet as she ran toward the TIE fighter parked on the wreckage. 

She dropped into the pilot’s seat. It took a moment to orient herself to the controls but they soon made sense to her, taking off and looking back to see Kylo staring at her as he slowly got up to his feet. Finn, Rey, and Jannah were motes on another island of wreckage. She also saw the Falcon starting up, so she knew that they would be okay. 

She didn’t know where she was going. She just knew she had to get away. Elektra felt like she was being torn apart, by what she had done, who she was becoming, by grief. She just let instinct guide her as she punched the coordinates into the navicomputer. She broke atmosphere and entered hyperspace. 

Kylo watched her disappear and his mind was in turmoil. He hadn’t known such healing was possible, didn’t understand how it had been done. His mother had sacrificed herself to reach him and his sister had healed him, at great cost to herself. The light within himself had been Elektra, he knew that but what he failed to realize was that it surrounded him too. It had also been his mother. Even . . . his father. 

“Hey, kid,” came a voice. The familiarity burning through him. He turned. 

Han Solo stood before him, untouched by ocean spray. He looked exactly the way Kylo remembered him last except his features were calm. At peace. 

“I miss you, son,” 

Kylo blinked. This couldn’t be real and yet, his breath trembled. “Your son is dead.” 

His father smiled. “No,” he tells him, striding towards him. Their faces were inches apart when he added, “Kylo Ren is dead. My son is alive.” 

He let his gaze roam his father’s face, his jacket, the blaster holstered at his side. Everything felt so real. He could even smell the gear lubricant Han Solo had always used to keep the Falcon’s converters running. 

“You’re just a memory.” 

“Your memory,” said his father. His eyes were so full of love. They were like daggers. “Come home.” He urged. 

“It’s too late. She’s gone.” He drew in a shaky breath. “ _ They’re _ gone.” 

“Your mother’s gone. Your sister left. But what your mother stood for and what Bre fought for, that’s not gone.”

He stared at his father, afraid to believe his words. Afraid of his own memory. But he knew it was true. Leia stood for hope, hope that one day he’d come home, and his sister fought for him to join her in the light; to be her brother once again.

“Ben,” his father said. 

“I know what I have to do,” Ben Solo admitted, his voice tremulous. “But I don’t know if I have the strength to do it.” 

Han raised his hand to Ben’s cheek. Ben remembered it exactly. His sister had been right; he hadn’t been able to shake the memory of the warmth of their father’s palm, the calluses at his fingertips, the acceptance in his eyes. 

“You do,” 

Han Solo still believed in him. So had his mother. So had Bre. 

Ben raised the handle of his lightsaber, just like he had on Starkiller Base, the last time he’d seen his father. Except this time, it’d be different. 

“Dad . . .” He said, suddenly small and sobbing. Vulnerable. Right. 

Han Solo smiled. “I know.” 

Ben turned, and launched the lightsaber into the air. It sailed in a high arc, far above the wreckage, and disappeared into a haze of ocean spray. 

“Bre’s always been at your side, through everything, every time. It’s time to do the same for her.”

He turns back, the memory of his father gone, and Ben Solo was alone in the middle of the sea. The last thing he told him was right. Ben had never actually been there for Bre; him trying to keep her from the dark side only drove her towards it with his attempts to stop her from heading to Exegol and ultimately giving her the only choice to join him in the journey by breaking the wayfinder she went through all that trouble for. Not once had he  _ offered _ to go with her.

He knew what he had to do now. Somehow, he could find the strength to do it. 


	19. We're Not Alone

General Pryde knelt in the dark before the hologram. He was in an area of his private quarters. No one had access to this place but him. Even Supreme Leader Ren didn’t know it existed. 

It took effort and careful planning to erase all records of these transmissions, but the risk was worth it. Everything had been worth it. 

The creature in the hologram spoke. “The girl, is she on her way here?” 

“Yes, sir. The Supreme Leader was trying to keep her away but she is obstinate.” 

“She gets that from her grandfather.” His master grinned; a slow, centipede crawl across his lips. “Come to me on Exegol, General Pryde.” 

“As I served you in the Old Wars, I serve you now.” 

The image sputtered. The transmission was weak and fragile, having made a near impossible journey through the Unknown Regions and anomalous space. But it was enough. “Send the ship to a world they know,” Palpatine said, and Pryde’s heart skipped. This was the moment he’d been waiting for. “Let it burn. The Final begins. She will come. Her friends will follow.” 

“Yes, my Lord.” 

A flurry of complex coordinate data followed. The way to Exegol. The Emperor was trusting him with his most precious knowledge. “Behold, the fruit of your labor,” his master said, as the data streaming toward him revealed another frequency channel. 

Pryde’s hand shook as he turned the holodisk to the new frequency. A different image sputtered before him; a flat surface, cracked ground, lightning flashes and haze. A colossal fleet hovered in the atmosphere at a staging altitude. So many of them. So beautiful. 

The Sith fleet that was his life’s work, hidden no more. 

As soon as the image settled, indicating he had a good lock, he gave the signal. 

A single ship separated from the rest. It gradually rose above the others until it had achieved a safe distance, then disappeared into hyperspace. He yearned to go with it. Everything he had worked for his whole life was finally coming to fruition. 

Pryde was a pragmatist though, and not even the ecstasy of the moment could allay his concerns. The ships were temporarily wulnerable, unable to raise shields in the planet’s hellish climate, but there was no choice. Much of the final building, inspection, testing, and maintenance must occur in the atmosphere. The Emperor’s crews would work triple shifts to get it done. 

He could have stayed forever, admiring the sight of the Sith fleet, but he had work to do. He smiled as he ended the transmission. Everything was proceeding as his Master had foreseen. 

The Sith Star Destroyer popped out of hyperspace above the white, frozen world of Kijimi. Final Order captain Chesille Sabrond stood on the bridge and watched as a cloud system shifted, revealing the ridge line of a massive mountain range. 

Captain Sabrond had never been outside the Unknown Regions. She’d been raised on Exegol, belowground. It had taken years of hard work and dedication to get this premium assignment, captain of the Derripham, the designated advance Star Destroyer. She’d killed three people, sabotaged two others, and barely slept in twenty years, just so she could be among the first to fly out into their new galaxy. 

The bridge was filled with Final Order officers, many raised on Exegol like her, others from various planets in the Unknown Regions. Several were children of the Empire, following in their parents’ footsteps. Many of the crimson clad Stormtroopers have been conscripted by the First Order as children, and then carefully culled and ‘disappeared’ by spies based on their potential. Everyone on this bridge had worked towards one goal: the return of the Sith. 

“Kijimi is in range,” said on of her lieutenants. 

Captain Chesille Sabrond smiled. “Fire.” She ordered and the deck rumbled as the massive cannon under the ship’s belly erupted. 

The entire planet imploded, sucking in on itself. Then, like an exhale, it exploded into a cosmic mass of ice and rock and magma. 

Captain Sabrond wanted to yell her triumph, but that would be unprofessional. Instead, she calmly gave the order: “Constant Imperial Command. Tell them the planet Kijimi is no more. Then set a course for our return to Exegol.”

Poe, Finn, Rey, Chewie, and the droids hurried down the Falcon’s ramp into the jungle base. The place was denser now with more consoles, more people, even a few more ships. The Resistance had been busy while they were away. 

Poe was glad to see Commander D’Acy waiting to greet them at the bottom of the ramp. “Poe,” she said, her voice heavy with solemnity. “Something’s happened. Finn, Rey—”

“This can’t wait.” Finn said. 

“We gotta see the general.” Poe added. 

D’Acy’s face was stricken. “She’s gone,” 

Poe froze, staring at the commander, his mind refusing to parse what she’d just said. 

Chewie moaned, rolled his head back, dropping to his knees. Finn tried to comfort the Wookie with Rey’s help but Chewie waved them off, grieving loudly. 

Poe just stood there, his heart aching, his feet unmoored. He was barely aware as Meredith grabbed him, began unwrapping the bandages on his arm. 

“We came so close,” Poe murmured. “I’m sorry.” 

Meredith spread bacta gel on Poe’s blaster wound, rebandaged it, all the while saying nothing. 

A moment later, D’Acy appeared again. “Poe. You need to see this.” 

He looked back and forth between them. Meredith, to D’Acy, and back to Meredith again. How were they still working? How _could_ they? Leia was gone, and the Resistance with her. 

He allowed D’Acy to lead him and Meredith to Beaumont’s communications console. She pointed to the message. “Kijimi’s been destroyed,” she informs him. 

“Kijimi?” Agony speared him anew. “How?” He choked out. 

“A blast from a Star Destroyer. A ship from the new Sith fleet. Out of the Unknowns.” 

Meredith’s mouth dropped open. “If the Emperor sent the ship from Exegol. Does that mean all the ships in his fleet—”

“Have planet killing weapons,” Poe finished with dawning horror. “Of course they do. All of them. This is how he finishes it.” 

Something beeped on Rhys’ console, and he hurried over. “Listen,” he said. “It’s on every frequency.” 

The console crackled and popped, and a voice began speaking in a language Poe didn’t recognize. 

But Beamout’s eyes flew open. “The Resistance is dead,” he translated. “The Sith flame will burn. All worlds, surrender or die. The Final Order begins.” 

And then the message repeated on a loop.

“Leia made you acting general,” Rhys eyes Poe. “What do we do now?” 

His first impulse was to refuse. He’d never run from anything in his life, but he wanted to run now. He couldn’t accept that Leia was gone, much less take on her job. Finn told him that if he was like Leia, he would’ve gone after Elektra and now, she was missing. Leia would’ve been searching her down, like how they had for Luke because like him, Elektra was their last hope for the war. But he hadn’t, and that told him that he wasn’t ready. Maybe he’d never be ready. He’d made terrible mistakes, gotten so many people killed. He thought he’d have more time to learn. To atone for what he’d done. 

He thought he was past this. She’d told him as much. But maybe forgiving yourself was a longer, harder process than a fellow realized. 

Suddenly, a memory of Leia popped up into his mind, clear as day, and he imagined her voice so deeply and profoundly it was almost like she was standing right there. _Failure is the greatest teacher._

Rey sat on Elektra’s cot. She couldn’t believe Leia was gone. The woman had accepted her so readily, like another daughter. Pushed her to learn, to always do better. Finn was sitting on her cot across the way, thinking about Leia too; how she called him brave for being a First Order deserter and set up training and education opportunities for him. Leia hadn’t spent nearly as much time with him as with Poe or Elektra, but it was clear that she’d expected great things from him. 

The tiny droid they’d rescued from Ochi’s ship toddled toward Rey and began poking around Elektra’s things. He noticed Elektra’s half built lightsaber and inclined his pointy nose cone toward it. 

“Hey, don’t touch that. That’s my friend’s.” 

The tiny droid recoiled, cocked his head. “S-s-sorry,” he told him. “She is gone?” 

“Yeah, she’s gone,” Finn answered. “I don’t know where.” 

The droid rolled back and forth. “I miss her.” 

“We miss her, too.” Rey speaks up this time. 

She’d give anything to be sitting beside her now, sharing grief. Not necessarily saying anything, just . . . being. 

If she knew where Elektra was, nothing in the galaxy would prevent her from going to her. Rey knew Finn felt the same way. Elektra had been saving them since the moment they met, and they’ve done the same. That’s what friends did. 

Rey mostly felt bad for Finn of all. No one quite understood his single minded devotion to Elektra, except maybe her and Leia. Everyone thought it was strange, or out of romantic feeling, but it wasn’t. Elektra was Finn’s friend. And she was very important. Finn sensed it, the same undeniable feeling he’d told Jannah about. If anything happened to Elektra, the Resistance didn’t stand a chance. 

The droid whirred again, a lonely sound. Rey realized she’d been so caught up in everything that was going on, she’s never bothered to get to know the little fellow. Elektra mattered, but so did everyone else. The only way they were going to make it through this was together. 

“What’s your name?” 

C-3PO wandered the base, disoriented. The place was a disaster, with cables strewn everywhere, jungle vines invading everything. Mus was starting to clog his joints. An oil bath would be just the thing, but he had no idea to ask. This ragtag group of beings included humans, Mon Calamari, a Wookie, and a dozen other species—not to mention numerous droids. No one culture or language seemed to dominate, which meant C-3PO had no idea what the protocol was.

A R2 series astromech spotted him and rolled in his direction. He was white with blue markings, and he bore scars of battle. An uncouth little thing, but it paid to be polite in these circumstances. 

“Hello, I’m C-3PO, human cyborg relations. And you are?” 

The astromech rolled back as if stuck. Then beeped insistently. 

“My memory back up? Why would a stubby astromech droid have my memory stored?”

The little droid beeped again, irritated. 

“Well, I’m quite certain I’d remember if I had a best friend.” C-3PO turned away. There was nothing worse than an astromech with delusions of grandeur. 

The astromech warbled insistently again.

“You want to put what in my head? Under no circumstances—”

The blue droid extended his transfer arm and began to chase after him. 

“You stay away from me with that!” 

More warbling, almost too fast to keep up with. 

“Whatever are you referring to? What history together?” 

The astromech whistled, more gently now. His words stooped C-3PO in his tracks. The golden droid looked up at the ship looming over them. 

“Oh a ship like that?” C-3PO said. “With a princess? You’re malfunctioning!” 

The little droid then took that as his opportunity and approached him.

Poe sat in the dark, beside Leia’s covered body. 

“I gotta tell you,” he told her, his cheeks pinched with stained tears. He had been there for quite some time, thinking of what to say. “I don’t know how to do this. What you did . . . I’m not ready.” 

“Neither were we,” came a voice from the shadows, and Poe turned. It was Lando Calrissian. 

The former Rebellion general had flown to Ajan Kloss on his ship, the Lady Luck, almost as soon as they’d left Pasaana. Something Elektra had said convinced him, and Poe was so glad he was there. 

“Luke. Han. Leia. Me,” Lando spoke. “Who’s ever ready?”

Poe stood up, stepping towards him. According to Connix, Lando had been overcome with grief when he arrived just a little too late. He’d missed his chance to say goodbye, regretting not coming sooner for the rest of his life. 

“How did you do it?” Poe questioned him, gulping. “Defeat an empire with almost nothing.”

“We had each other.” Lando told the younger man. “That’s how we won.” 

A light dawned in Poe’s mind. For the first since his return to Ajan Kloss, he smiled and went searching for Finn. 

Finn found him first with Rey. His friend rushed towards him, the tiny conical droid lapping at his heels. 

“I gotta tell you something,” Finn states, voice urgent. 

“I gotta tell _you_ something,” Poe returns. “I can’t do this alone. I need you in command with me.”

“Look, this droid—uh, that’s really nice, I appreciate that . . .”

“General,” Poe said, giving him a salute. 

“General.” Finn echoes back. “This droid has a ton of information about Exegol.” 

“Wait, what? Cone face?” Poe stares down at him. 

“I am D-O!” 

“Sorry, D-O.” Poe apologizes and stares back to Finn. 

“He was going to Exegol with Ochi of Bestoon.” 

Poe looks at the droid, to Rey, and back at Finn. “Why was Ochi going there?”

Rey then takes over, stepping up to be closer and takes in a deep breath. “To give the Emperor updates on a child born from the Princess of Alderaan.” 

“The child who had been on Jakku with her father and was protected by a Wookie from his Sith droid.” Finn finishes. 

Poe gaped. Rey and Finn stared at him, waiting for him to put the pieces together. 

The coral sun had set over the ocean of Ahch-To as flames engulfed Kylo Ren’s TIE fighter. Elektra watched the ship burn, tears in her eyes. She shucked bits of driftwood at it. Not that they could do any damage, but it felt good to throw things. She finally understood why Luke had come here, why he’d given up everything and taken up the life of a hermit. Elektra was never going back. She could never put her friends or her last remaining family member in danger again. She would live out whatever years she had right here, accompanied by the Porgs and sea sows.

She was the granddaughter of Darth Vader, and his darkness was rising within her. Without her mother, she had no chance of pushing back the tide. The galaxy was better off without her. 

She couldn’t go back to being Bre Solo anymore. She couldn’t be a Ren and now, the title of being an Organa had removed itself completely from her putting everyone in danger. That’s not what an Organa would do; an Organa would guide their people, making sure they were supported and safe, and have words of encouragement in their trying times. She wasn’t an Organa. She was a Vader. Elektra Vader. The newest name and the last to add to her list. 

She slowly takes the legacy lightsaber from her belt, staring down at it. The very same one that had called out to her. The same one that belonged to Anakin, and was built by him. The one he had when he became Vader, before he had burned on Mustafar and was being reborn into his new identity. The signs were there all along and she had been ignorant, inconsiderate to see it, all because she believed that she was following in Luke’s footsteps. 

Elektra’s eyes linger up to the burning TIE and extend back her hand, throwing it with a vengeance. 

A hand reached out and caught it. A robed figure emerging from the flames, limned in ghostly light, almost transparent. “A Jedi’s weapon deserves more respect.” 

“Uncle Luke,” she breathed. 

His eyes narrowed in consternation. “What are you doing?” 

They stared at each other. Elektra wasn’t sure what to tell him but just knew that he already knew what happened. After all, Force spirits did come when you needed them the most.

She sat down, she had to. She was so exhausted from battling Kylo and healing him. Luke stood over her, unbothered by the proximity of his robes to the flames. “I did everything I was trained not to. I drew my saber first, attacked Kylo, blind with anger.” She pauses, “I . . I tried to kill him.” 

“But then you healed him.”

Elektra stares down at her right hand, the bandage needed changing badly, and nods. “I gave him some of my life. In that moment I would have given him all of it . . . died if I had to.”

“Your compassion saved him. More than you know.” He tells her. “You did it because you love him, miss him.” 

“Unconditional love.” Elektra didn’t feel like fielding anything resembling a compliment. She didn’t deserve it. “I miss who he was. I don’t know if I miss who he is.” 

“No one’s ever really gone,” he informs her, the same words he had spoken to Leia on Crait. 

“Except me. I saw myself on the dark throne. And I’m not gonna let that happen. I’m never leaving this place.” She glances up at him in challenge. “I’m doing what you did.” 

The fire popped. A spark landed on Luke’s robe, but he didn’t react, and the spark winked out as though it had landed on nothing. 

“I was wrong,” Luke told her. “It was fear that kept me here. What are you most afraid of?” 

The answer was easy. But saying it was hard. “Dad used to say that Kylo had too much Vader in him, and Mom used to say that she saw a bit of you in me. What if she was wrong? What if _I’m_ too much like Vader?” 

“You are.” Luke said so casually, not skipping a beat. “She knew it, and I did too.” 

Elektra began tearing up again, averting her gaze and sniffling as she wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “And she _still_ trained me.” 

Luke moved to sit down besides her. “She didn’t want to make the mistake that I did with Ben.”

“But I still turned, for a moment—took his lightsaber and stabbed him,” she sobs. “Why did none of you ever tell me? I could’ve done something. _Changed_ something! I could’ve been better than this.”

“It’s not that simple, Bre,” Luke softly tells her, placing his father’s lightsaber into her good hand and even handed her Han’s dice that he took from the Falcon in her wounded one. “The Force guides us towards balance. It doesn’t always show us what we want to see. Doesn’t always work how we want it to. We have to trust in it.”

Elektra allowed her fingers to graze the hilt back and forth repeatedly. “Dark suffocates the light. Light extinguishes the dark. Over and over. How is that balance?” She petulantly retorts to herself, feeling foolish. 

“The Force can’t ever be all bad or all good.” Luke explains to her wisely. “But you have a good heart, Bre. You get that from Leia. And your spirit, that’s Han. You’re still with the light.”

The rightness of his words sparked inside her. She still had her light, and it was in her friendships. And love for her brother. 

“But I’m afraid.” She confessed. 

“Confronting fear is the destiny of a Jedi,” Luke went on. “ _Your_ destiny. If you don’t face Palpatine, it will mean the end of the Jedi. And the war will be lost.” 

“Like how you confronted Vader,” she utters, remembering the notes in his journals. And the Forceback. 

“No. Like how Anakin Skywalker confronted Palpatine.” He corrects, her giving him an arch look as he rose to his feet. Though the island wind whipped at the strands of Elektra’s hair, Luke’s seemed unaffected. “There’s something your mother would want you to have.” 

Luke led her inside his old hut. It was still in good condition, maintained by the Lanai caretakers in his absence. He pointed toward a loose brick in the wall. Elektra kneels down, removing the brick, and reaching inside. Her fingertips encountered a hard object wrapped in soft leather. She pulled it out. Unwrapped it. 

It was a lightsaber, shinin with relative newness. The emitter was in the style of Luke’s green lightsaber, the hilt a mix of what Anakin and Kylo’s looked like. It was made from silver and copper. As soon as her hands gripped it, she sensed its owner, and she smiled. 

“Mom’s saber.” 

“It was the last night of her training,” Luke said. 

Elektra caught glimpses of his memory— _lightsabers clashing, their blades lighting the jungle around them in soft blue and green. Their fight was fierce, but Elektra felt a sense of fun. Of joy. Luke had loved training his sister._

_Luke found himself toppled to the ground, his fall cushioned by a bed of ferns. He looked up at his twin, a much younger version of the woman that Elektra hardly remembered, who grinned, but her face held sadness too. Resignation._

“Leia told me that she had sensed the death of you and Ben at the end of her Jedi path,” 

Elektra peers over her shoulder at him. That was it. The thing her mother had been holding back. 

“She surrendered her saber to me and said that one day, it would be picked up again by someone who would finish her journey.” 

Elektra couldn’t hold back the tears that slowly trickled down from her eyes as she slowly stood. “ _Me._ ”

“A thousand generations live in you now,” Luke tells her. “But this is _your_ fight.” He glanced down at Anakin’s and Leia’s lightsabers in her hands. “You’ll take both sabers to Exegol.” 

Her heart sank. By trying to do the right thing, she had ruined everything. “I can’t get there. I don’t have the wayfinder. I destroyed Kylo’s ship.” She hooked the lightsabers to her belt, Anakin’s at the side and Leia’s behind her.

The Jedi Master’s smile held so much fondness it made her heart ache. If he could look at her like that, maybe she wasn’t so hopeless. “You have everything you need,” he said gently. 

Elektra was thinking about it. “He _went_ to Exegol.” 

**_Bre,_** that voice once again, calling out to her.

She exited the hut, seeing how the TIE was a smoldering wreck. A few porgs huddled nearby, as close to the warmth of the dying fire as they dared. Following her instincts, she ran to the ashed ship, reaching down and shoved the detritus aside.

A wayfinder sat there, smokeless and pristine. _Vader’s_ wayfinder. She grabs it, feeling a connection to the pyramidal object as it whispered to her.

“Two were made.” She whispers.

The noise of the sea was ever present here on Ahch-To, but compared with that she’d just experienced on Kef Bir, it was a gentle, peaceful rhythm of waves against cliffs, diving porgs, crying gulls. So when something happened, it was noticeable. 

Behind her, the sea churned violently, and wet spray hit her back. She turns, peering over the cliffside. 

Water was boiling up in the cove below. Luke’s submerged X-wing began to rise. First came the laser cannons on the wingtips, shedding water and seaweed. Then the fusial thrust engines, the cockpit canopy, the nose cone. Soon even the landing gear was clear, and Elektra watched, awestruck, as the fighter drifted with perfect precision and control to an area of flat ground, where it landed with a tiny thump. 

Her gaze was drawn to a figure nearby. Luke, eyes closed, shining blue against the cliffside, reaching out with his hand. His eyes open, seeing her, and he smiled. She smiled back. Luke was right. She had everything she needed. 

It had taken Ben Solo an amount of time to climb through the ruins of the Death Star in search of a hangar bay, even longer to find an old scout class TIE and coax it into flying for him. When his sister had healed him with her life force, it was as if she also transferred her memories, thoughts, and feelings to him. He knew how important Poe and Finn were to her, could practically sense how nervous she got whenever Rey looked at her like she was the last person in the galaxy, and she felt her love for him. Bright, warm, and never ending. He also saw and felt her relief whenever Chewie hugged her, her despair at C-3PO not remembering who she was, and lastly, the Resistance Base located on Ajan Kloss. That was his destination. 

When he arrived on the jungle moon, he slowly stepped out and gathered up his strength. He had taken off his clad jacket, left only with his black sweater that had a burned hole in it from when Elektra had stabbed him. Ben strolled through, an invisible pull tugging on him as a few Resistance pilots and crew members just silently watched him go by in fear. His dark eyes scanned around the base, hoping to find Rey or even Finn, but someone else had found instead. 

A girl with brown shoulder length hair, wearing an old Resistance jumpsuit. Ben knew who she was because of his sister, this girl was Vira. “I’m sorry about your mother.” 

Ben was instantly taken back from her generosity. She must’ve known of what he'd done surely, and yet, she offered him her condolences and he tenderly nodded to her in a way of saying, “thank you.” Vira then scans around, seeing her boyfriend Rhys standing near Rose, Finn, and Poe as they hooked the cone droid D-O into a console. Gingerly, she led him on over. 

“There!” Poe pointed. Information flashing across the console screen; diagrams, maps, navigational codes, atmosphere data, asset distribution, tower logistics.

Finn exchanged an excited glance with his friend. ‘Everything you ever wanted to know for an airstrike on Exegol.” 

“Except how to get there,” Poe said, frustrated. “You see these readings?”

Finn nodded. “A mess. Look at those magnetic cross fields.” 

Rose leaned closer. “Gravity wells? Solar winds?” She said in a disbelieving voice which worried Finn. If their top engineer thought Exegol’s atmosphere presented an insurmountable obstacle, their mission was doomed before it had begun. 

“How can their fleet even take off in that?” Poe asked. 

Which begged the question: How could they land in that? Fight in that? There had to be a way. 

“I’m terribly sorry,” came C-3PO’s voice. “But he insists!” The golden droid waddled toward them, gesticulating with his arms, the little astromech following behind. “I’m afraid R2’s memory bank must be crossed with his logic receptors.” 

Finn was glad the real C-3PO was back, but this was no the time—

“He says he’s getting a transmission from Master Luke!” 

R2 was practically singing as he plugged into one of the console’s dataports. A subspace radar map appeared on the display. A blip showed as IN FLIGHT, bearing an X-wing signature. 

Rhys called up the identification. “That’s an old craft ID. AA-589.” 

Poe stepped back, blinking. Staring at Finn. “It is Luke Skywalker’s X-wing.” 

Finn gaped. 

“It’s transmitting course marker signals,” Rhys informs the surrounding crew. “On its way to the Unknown Regions.” 

Finn was nearly overcome with relief, with joy, with hope. He was about to speak but a newer voice cut through the crowd and it stopped his heart for a brief moment. 

“It’s Bre,” Ben Solo had stated with absolute certainty as everyone faced him and drew out their weapons at first sight. “She’s going to Exegol. She’s showing you guys how to get there.” 

“I suggest you head back the way you came,” Poe warned, aiming his blaster at his face. 

“Poe,” Finn placed his hand on his, lowering it down which dropped the gun’s sight. 

“Finn, what?” 

“He’s not here to hurt us.” Finn tells everyone and they lower their weapons down as well. “He’s here to help.” 

Rey had overheard the commotion, walking out of her and Elektra’s quarters with Chewie at her side. For the past few minutes, he had been explaining everything to her in detail of what Ben told him in the interrogation room, her understanding everything more and seeing how bigger the picture actually was. So when she saw Ben standing in front of her friends, it didn’t shock her but it surely left an impression.

“Ben,” 

He turns, seeing her and looks back to the others, but mostly Poe. “I’m sorry for what I did. I can’t go back and change it, but I can try and make things right. I _want_ to make things right if you guys will let me.” A pause. “Bre’s the only family I have left now. You know how that feels.” 

Poe did. Leia was a second mother to him and now, she was gone, and left him to fill her shoes. It was sudden but it was something that she trusted him with. His mind went back to what Finn said again: if he was Leia he’d care about Elektra, and in enough of itself, that also meant he’d care for Kylo Ren— _for_ Ben Solo. The person Leia still loved and cherished after everything. 

“Then we go together.” 

Pilots and ground crew, mechanics and officers, all rushed toward the Tantive IV. Poe had called a briefing, and Rose with Rhys’ help rigged a holodisplay under the blockade runner’s giant belly. It sat atop cargo cases, and the image flickering in and out, but it would do. Chewie was sitting by himself, still not believing that Elektra had gone to Exegol, him fearing for her life but Ben came over and gave him a hug. “Uncle Chewie” he finally called the Wookie after a long time, and Chewie hugged the boy, all those memories flooding his mind of when he had been a child. They left, gathering around the others for the meeting. Even Lando was there and he gave a nod of appreciation to Ben which made him feel better, more at home. 

Finn had the floor, and Poe was happy to give it to him. Leadership was much easier when shared. “As long as those Star Destroyers are on Exegol, we can hit them,” 

“Hit them how?” Meredith crosses her arms in front of her chest, her eyes kept on drifting over to where Ben stood. “And I’m sorry, but him being there is kinda buggin’ with my mind.” 

“You aren’t the only one.” Rhys comments on the sidelines. 

“The fleet can’t activate their shields until they leave the atmosphere.” Ben explains to Meredith. “Which isn’t easy on Exegol.” 

“Ships that size need help taking off.” Poe adds in. “Nav can’t tell which way’s up out there.” 

Vira asked, “So how do the ships take off?” 

“They use a signal from a navigation tower. Like this one.” Poe flipped the holodisplay to a new image; an obelisk like tower jutting from the flat ground, spreading its arry like a metal opening its petals. The same image Ben saw in his vision when Palpatine revealed his fleet to him. 

“Except they won’t,” Finn speaks. “Because air team’s gonna find the tower, and ground team’s gonna blast it.” 

“Ground team?” Vanik questions. He was an A-wing pilot and one of Poe’s personal recruits like Meredith. 

“I got an idea about that.” Finn replies with a smug smirk. 

Poe gave him a nod. Finn’s plan for the ground team just might work, though it was a bit unconventional. It would definitely take the enemy by surprise. “Once the tower’s down, their fleet is stuck in atmo. For just minutes. No shields, no way out. And Rose has an idea about that. Rose?”

“My team’s been analyzing the Sith Star Destroyers,” she says. “In order to kill a planet with those cannons, they need an enormous power source.” 

“They’re drawing on the main reactors.” Rhys nods. 

“We think hitting a cannon might take down the whole ship.” 

“That’s our chance,” said Lando. He’d changed his Aki-Aki garb for bright clothing and a knee length cape.

“Shields or no shields,” Wexley cut in. “Star Destroyers aren’t target practice. Not for single fighters.” 

“We’d be no more than bugs to them.” Connix agreed. 

Snap and Connix had a point. 

Beaumont leaned forwards. “We need to do some Holdo maneuvers. Do some real damage.” 

Before Poe could answer that they couldn’t afford to sacrifice anyone, Finn jumped in with, “Come on. That move was one in a million. Fighters and freighters can take out their cannons if there are enough of us.” 

What kind of galaxy had it become, Poe marveled, if freighters were considered war class ships? He supposed it didn’t matter. Getting their ready was his job, not that Leia was gone. He would do whatever he had to do to get them all ready to fight. 

“There aren’t enough of us.” Nien Nunb protested in his native Sullustese. 

Finn nodded at the pilot. “That’s where Lando and Chewie come in. They’re going to take the Falcon to the Core systems. Send out a call for help to anybody listening.” 

“We got friends out there. They’ll come if they know there’s hope.” Poe continued, everyone murmuring in doubt because they had remembered Crait as painfully as he did. He peered to Lando and lastly Ben; they came to help, to be allies. And he pressed on. “They will! Leia’s son, Ben, he came to help.” That caught their attention again, to hush. “The First Order wins by making us think we’re alone. We’re not alone. Good people will fight if we lead them.” 

The words hit Ben hard: _the First Order wins by making us think we’re alone_. Snoke made him believe that all this time, but he wasn’t. He had his sister, had his father, his mother, Lando, Chewie and C-3PO. Even Maz Kanata! And now, he had the Resistance. Family and friends. 

“Leia never gave up,” Finn speaks. “And neither will we. We’re gonna show them we’re not afraid.” 

“What our mothers and fathers fought for,” Poe said, thinking of his own parents, Shara Bey and Kes Dameron, who had sacrificed so much to fight for the Rebel Alliance. “We will not let it die. Not today. Today we make our last land. For the galaxy, for Leia. For everyone we’ve lost.” 

Ben felt himself getting emotional from Poe’s words. Them being deeply effective and for once, he was able to display those emotions of how he truly felt without a mask. 

A hopeful smile spread out against his lips, nodding along and eyed everyone’s faces. They all were expressing themselves, so much lighter and cheerful unlike the First Order. This was truly where he belonged. He was only upset with himself that it hadn’t happened sooner but if he had remembered anything that Luke did teach him from the Jedi Temple, it was that the Force led them to where they needed to be, when they needed to be. 

“They’ve taken enough of us,” Finn eyed the crowd. “Now we take the war to them.” 

Ben stood a step forward, courage coursing through him. “May the Force with you. All of you.” He nods tenderly. “May the Force be with us.” 

“May the Force be with us.” Finn repeated. 

Then several called out at once: “May the Force be with us!” 

Everyone prepped for battle. Ground crew moving fuel lines from ship to ship. Droids loading into fighters. Comm officers making console adjustments and testing frequencies. Commander D’acy kissing Tyce. Vira kissing Rhys to wish him luck on the ground while she’d be in the air. Wedge’s stepkid Snap Wexley, hugging his wife Kare goodbye. 

Impossible odds. 

Ben had felt a pull, finding his sister’s quarters and looking around in her items until he found what was attraching him to the location. He picked up her unfinished lightsaber, inspecting it carefully and allowed himself to smirk at the workings of it. 

A presence entered and he turned, seeing Rey walking over and she just eyed him in silence. Without looking up, Ben spoke. “She loves you, too.” 

Rey was taken back by his words, even confused. “What?” 

“She loves you,” he repeated, his right hand grasping Bre’s incomplete hilt. “It just takes her a while to notice, to confront it, but you feel it with every action she does. That’s how Bre is.” 

He grabbed a few tools, tweaking his sister’s lightsaber for her and sat it back down in her things. Ben then sits down on her cot, staring up at Rey who grabs her quarterstaff but it was now different. She had turned it into a double bladed lightsaber so it could have familiar heft to it; one that she had been so used to since Jakku. 

“I want to apologize for when I captured you, trying to enter your mind forcibly and for when I threw you against that tree.” 

Rey had to admire him for being upfront, and considerably admiral. He wasn’t saying it to be forgiven, he was trying to correct his wrongs and make up for it, and she felt that with the Force. She also felt Elektra’s life in him and that could have only meant that she transferred her life energy to him. 

“I forgive you.” She replies accordingly, stuffing a few things to stuff her bag. 

Rey was heading with Finn, Rhys, Connix, and Rose on the Lander, joining the ground team which is why she finally made the decision to turn her staff into a lightsaber. Rey had a few training classes here and there from Elektra on how lightsabers worked, and she told her that she had never held a lightsaber before picking up Luke’s on Starkiller Base. She also said that once it was in her hands, it quickly became a part of her. Rey had hoped it’d be the same for her, and sure enough, it had. The Force, using lightsabers in battle, using your senses; it was practice but felt all too easy. She’d fought for her survival on Jakku when her parents left her, when Unkar Plutt raised her for only three years after and threw her out to be on her own, she learned very quickly from those harsh years. 

Rey places her bag onto her shoulder and clips her dual lightsaber onto her belt before taking another look at Ben. “I’m sorry about Leia.” She uttered, giving him her sorrow for a short second and left as she heard Finn yelling for her. 

The mention of her name reminded him that she was there, too. A being of her was still there and he stood, walking out towards her quarter’s and saw her cloth covered body. He placed his hand under the sheet, stealing her hand to hold and he felt himself tearing up. 

“Mom, I came home,” he whispers, “I’m sorry it took so long . . . I hope I can make you proud of me now.” 

There was more that Ben could’ve said and he knew that. He could apologize to her for killing Han, apologizing for becoming Kylo Ren and taking Bre away from her. Apologize by thinking she couldn’t handle him anymore and that’s why she sent him away, but when she died he felt her awareness and her tenderness for him. Ben didn’t need to apologize because she already forgave him but he needed to say it, he wanted her to know that he understands what he had done even though he had been a victim under Snoke. That there were no excuses, that there shouldn’t have to be excuses but a mother’s love was always kindliness and unlimited. 

“Ben,” Lando Calrissian entered like how he had with Poe, staring at the boy. “Welcome back.” 

“Uncle Lando,” he took his hand away from his mother, settling the cloth back to how it was and stepped up to the man, unsure to give him a hug or not. 

“Chewie’s hollering for me to get on the Falcon and I figured, maybe you could come with us. Help us get some allies.” 

Ben lightly frowned. “Thank you, really, but I don’t deserve to step foot on that ship. And I need to be where Bre is. I promised Dad . . .” 

Lando nods politely, respecting his wishes. “I think with what you’re about to do, you’ve earned it.” 

The Millennium Falcon had once belonged to Lando before Han won it from him in a game of sabacc. Lando had been the rightful owner and Ben giving him his grace of stepping foot aboard the freighter gave him serenity. 

In silence Lando left with Ben, the two of them climbing up the Falcon’s ramp and paused at the door. They took a deep breath, knowing it was going to hurt, and went. 

They entered the curved corridor. At Lando’s feet were secret compartments, lined with a sensor confusing amalgam of rare metals and conductive mesh. He’d smuggled a lot of stuff in those compartments; jewels, weapons, Imperial indentichips, himself. His buddy Han had smuggled even more. Lando even remembered a time when Bre hid in there with Ben, playing hide and seek with C-3PO but Han and Chewie took the ship off to go on a mission. They were stowaways that day and boy, was Leia upset. The memory brought a smile onto Lando’s face. 

To his and Ben’s right were the cockpit and lounge, and to the left was the cargo hold. He loved that hold. Lando had transported legal cargo, too, though it had most often been cover for more valuable, less legitimate goods. Often, though, his cargo hold had remained empty. Or at least not quite full. He’d thrown a lot of great parties in that hold. 

He turned right and headed toward the lounge, Ben right behind him. In the lounge, the hologram board and seat were exactly the way he remembered them, though the stuffing in the seat was starting to come out at one seam. An easy patch. 

He smiled. Han and Chewie had always had too many things on their minds to notice something so inconsequential. Back when he owned the Falcon, he would have fixed it right away. 

Behind the lounge was the guest bunk, a place he’d slept often in the days of the New Republic, and he felt a pang so sharp it was like a stab to his chest. Leia had always managed to find some essential errand for him, and Lando had ended up an unofficial second mate on a ship that used to be his.

He missed them both so much. 

Ben passed the galley and headed toward the captain’s cabin. The room contained a triple bunk, something Han had inserted for his family whenever they left to go somewhere. Ben always got the top, Bre had the middle, and Leia took the bottom in case the twins would sneak about which they had done a lot. And there was Chewie’s bunk, where Lando’s cape closet used to be until Han retrofitted it to create the first mate’s bunk. 

He stepped toward Chewie’s bunk and the compartment it was hiding for a closer look, reaching across the bunk for the rivet that was really a button. The panel whisked open and the first thing that hit him was the smell of Wookie fur. Not unpleasant, once you were used to it, but a little surprising just the same. 

Ben always wondered what was in there and he figured it was good of any time to figure it out. 

Inside was a small metal shelf and on it was a hologram disk, the edges worn with use. It was none of his business. Probably a treasured memory from his homeworld of Kashyyyk. Chewie was over two centuries old, with a long history of family and friends Ben knew nothing about. 

He started to leave, but stopped. He couldn’t resist. He was the son of a scoundrel, after all. 

Ben reached forward and flicked the hologram switch. 

An image of Chewbacca himself projected onto the disk in soft blue. He held two small human children in his arms. 

Ben and Bre, dark haired, chubby fisted. Ben was kicking his legs and yanking on Chewie’s fur, shrieking in delight. Bre was sitting on the Wookie’s shoulders, legs and arms wrapped around his head and neck loosely so she wouldn’t fall, resting her chin on top of him. Chewbacca just cuddled Ben close and purred in the embrace of Bre. 

Ben flicked off the hologram. He couldn’t watch anymore. Snoke and the First Order had taken so much from them. From all of them. 

He went to leave Chewie’s quarters and saw Lando watching him. Ben awaited to be yelled at, or told he was being intrusive, but he didn’t. Lando only said, “Chewie said you’d finally find it.” 

“He knows?” 

Lando nods. “It’s his favorite memory. Bre and you were everything to him, just like how Leia and Han were. You have your mother’s looks but your father’s mannerisms, and Bre had Han’s looks but Leia’s fierceness. You both were the very offspring of the people he came to know and love.” 

He turns out of the room, entering the lounge and Ben follows, seeing him going to the compartment where Han kept his blasters and took out a DL-44 blaster. 

“If you’re joining the fight, you’re gonna need a blaster.” Lando holds it out to Ben and he stares at it. “Han would want you to have it.” 

Ben’s hand trembles, taking it lightly and holds it for a good minute. “Thank you.” 

“You’ll do good, kiddo. I believe that. May the Force be you.” 

Ben then took Lando into a hug and Lando hugged him back tight. 

Poe’s X-wing was almost ready. He watched as a crane lifted R2-D2 into the ship’s astromech compartment. He’d miss having BB-8 with him, but his buddy had another assignment. Besides, R2-D2 had logged more X-wing hours than any other droid on the base, and he and Poe made a good team. 

“I don’t know of any droid ever returning from the Unknown Regions,” C-3PO said tremulously. “But you’re no ordinary droid.” 

Poe was about to climb into the cockpit when he saw Finn hurrying towards the lander, calling him over. Finn jogged over and then they clapped each other on the shoulders. 

“You know what’s waiting for her out there?” He asks, his heart already pounding to try and help Elektra.

Finn’s face was grim. But he said, “We’ll see her again. I know we will.” 

“You know?” 

“I know a lot of things. You’d be surprised.” 

He nods, giving Finn’s shoulder one last squeeze, and they both hurried off. 

Poe reached for the ladder. His arm still smarted from the blaster burn he’d received on the Steadfast. But he was Poe Dameron, ace pilot, acting general general of the Resistance, and he could fly anything, even one handed. 

They all depoly, flying high up into the sky, and set way towards the Unknown Regions. Off to Exegol.


	20. Rise of Skywalker

Elektra exited hyperspace. The planet Exegol was finally before her, shrouded with dark clouds that flashes bright with lightning. The instruments on her console beeped warnings about the approaching atmosphere. She ignored them, angling downward into the clouds, grateful to be piloting Luke’s X-wing. It was old tech, and it had taken some fast thinking and even faster fingers to get it flight worthy. The wing patched with the door to Luke’s hut, shield panels scavenged from the TIE wreckage, and a hefty amount of rewiring. It might never fight again, at least not without the help of Rose and Rhys and their part requisition channels. But it was still fighter class, and its transition from vacuum to atmo was seamless. 

Her ship dipped below the cloud line and she gulped, wides growing in size. The Sith fleet spread out before her, even more vast than her vision has led her to believe, shining bright in relief against the perpetual storm, stretching as far as her eyes could see. The vessels were based on an older model, from the days of the Galactic Empire, but they were so much bigger than those. Extra gun turrets and laser cannon attested to a much greater ordnance capability than her Resistance friends were expecting. 

“I have a bad feeling about this,” she utters to herself. 

Her ship wobbled a little and she compensated quickly, cruising to an altitude considerably below the Sith fleet. Exegol was a horror of a planet, but its atmospheric anomalies might confuse the Destroyers’ sensors and keep them from noticing her tiny ship. In fact, she was counting on it. 

For the most part, she was right. The atmosphere did trick their sensors but unfortunately for her, they had expected her from the Emperor himself. 

Allegiant General Pryde stared out of the viewport of the Steadfast, hands clasped behind his back and watched Elektra’s flight. A Sith officer staring up at him, “She’s on approach.” 

“All ships rise to deployment altitude.” He ordered loudly as Admiral Griss stepped up next to him. 

Pryde’s hands began to shake, and he clasped them even tighter. His life’s work had led him here. He knew of the plan from the beginning, following Supreme Leader Ren around, hearing him talk of the so-called ‘scavenger’ which he knew was really his sister. The boy was smart to think of a cover, but Pryde had been smarter to see through it. 

He took a deep breath to steady his voice and said to Admiral Griss, “Soon worlds will burn. Our lord will rise again.”

Moments later Elektra was on the ground. The air was hot, the soil fissured with dryness. A dark building breached the clouds ahead of her, and for the briefest moment she considered giving in to terror. Such malevolence radiated from the building that she knew exactly what—who—she would find inside. Even more terrifying was the fact that the presence was familiar. As though some form of it had been watching her, maybe most of her life. 

_Confronting fear is the destiny of a Jedi._ She reminded herself. 

Elektra pressed on. 

She stepped beneath a massive monolith that seemed to hover in the air. She would trust what Luke said, removing Anakin’s lightsaber from her belt and igniting it to light her way. Elektra got startled when the section of floor she stood on detached from the rest, beginning to descend. She looked around, alert to any sight of sound, but all was as silent as death. 

Then a rumble sounded, too distant to identify. 

The lift settled, and Elektra stepped off. She raised her weapon, and its blue light snagged on huge stone faces, sparking with electricity. She knew that the statues commemorated Sith Lords who had come before. This place of evil must have been here for centuries, maybe millennia, for the air was heavy with the weight of time and dark secrets. 

Elektra was suddenly aware that she was not alone. Figures scurried in the shadows, but she sensed no immediate threat from them, so she continued on. A few more steps took her past a dizzying array of lab equipment: monitors, tubes, some kind of tank, all empty and abandoned. 

Just like the planet’s surface, the floor here contained fissures, and light flashed deep down. Elektra couldn’t tell how deep, it was as though Exegol’s entire crush had formed around a core of electricity. Every vicious, violet crackle in the fissures sent her turning and jumping at any which way, all seeming to be taunting her.

Captain Chesille Sabrond stood on the bridge of the Derriphan, looking through the viewport at the rest of the Sith Fleet. They held formation slightly above everyone else, as they only Destroyer to have already made the climb. Allegiant General Pryde had tasked her crew with observing the ascension and reporting any anomalies. 

The fleet was a beautiful sight to behold. Together, they were going to conquer an entire galaxy, and Sabrond was going to play a major role in the Final Order. She’d have to continue distinguishing herself. She was under no delusion that captaining a Star Destroyer would be enough. There were thousands of captains. Tens of thousands. Somehow, she’d make sure that Allegiant General Pryde and the reborn Emperor saw her as one in ten thousand. 

Sabrong could do it. Somehow. She had come this far. And she was just getting started. 

“Captain, we have Resistance craft incoming.” One of her comms officers spoke, flicking a switch to open the channel. 

Allegiant General Pryde appeared on the bridge holo and she looked to him. “Allegiant General?” 

“Use the ion cannons,” Pryde orders. “Scatter fire pattern.”

Poe’s X-wing exited hyperspace, and he finally caught his first sight of Exegol. It was the deadest, ugliest thing he’d seen in a long while, and he wondered if it had always been this way or if building a colossal fleet of Star Destroyers here had killed the place. 

Besides him, his tiny squadron popped into view with the Tantive IV, Finn and Rey’s lander, and several more fighters. Even Ben in his stolen TIE from Kef Bir. They dived into the cloud cover, and nearly collided with the Sith fleet. 

“Look at that fleet.” Poe gasped into the comm. Their triangled hulls were enormous, but they grew ever smaller as their number stretched into seeming infinity. 

“Great dark seas,” Vira swore and angled her Y-wing closer to Poe, determined to keep her new acting general alive at any cost. 

Poe banked hard as thousands of simultaneous cannon blasts lit up the sky like a nova. “Damn it!” To his left, a fighter was stripped of its hull, debris flying off in all directions, until it finally exploded into a fireball. “Welcome to Exegol.” He said dryly. 

Fighters came out from the fleet, one flying straight for Snap and Vanik shouted for him: “Watch your starboard, Wexley!” 

Snap saw the incoming fighter, maneuvering out of the way just in time and took a second to collect himself from the close encounter. 

A quick glance around showed that they’d lost several fighters in just that first volley, and with sensors so unreliable, Poe had no idea who. This was the price of leadership. 

“Get to their altitude! They can’t fire on us without hitting each other. And don’t give up! Help is coming.” Poe ordered and following his lead, the squadron dived hard, dodging blasts all the way, toward the endless sea of Destroyers. They swooped into the coordiors created by the ships’ hulls, almost daring them to fire. 

Finn stared through his quadnocs as his team piloted the lander Fortitude toward the planet’s surface. He’d used this ship for missions before; it was sturdy with decent shields and lots of space for quick crew transport, even if that crew was a bit unconventional. 

A structure rose before him in the distance, tall, silvery, and imposing. “Poe, I see it. I’ve got a visual on the tower.” 

“Prep to unload the ground team at the base of the tower.” Poe responded from somewhere high above. 

“Incoming TIEs!” Snap Wexley warned, and Poe was glad to hear his voice. That was one survivor confirmed. 

His relief was short-lived. Hundreds of Sith TIEs screamed toward them like giant predatory birds, with wicked red and black lines across razor sharp wings. 

“I see them.” Poe readied his sights. 

“Just remember that I’m on your side,” Ben comments over the radio, gripping the handles. “I’ll cover Finn.” He then reached for the yoke, flying after the lander and flew in front of it, catching sight of a TIE and blowing it up. 

Pryde was pleased. They’d destroyed numerous Resistance fighters. The remaining ships were a skeleton squadron, incapable of mounting any real offensive. 

“General,” said his comm officer. “They’re targeting the navigation tower. So the fleet can’t deploy.” 

Amirdal Griss was going to respond but Pryde always had a backup plan. 

“Then we won’t use that tower. Switch over the source of the navigation signal to this ship.” He demands. “We’ll guide the fleet out ourselves.”

A light flashed atop the tower as Finn and his crew approached in the lander. Then the light went off and stayed off. Watching it through his quadnocs, Finn got a bad feeling. 

Jannah approached his shoulder. “Finn, we’re good to go,” she said. 

“Thanks for doing this,” he told her. 

She started to say something, but an alarm beeped in the cockpit. 

Vira’s voice filtered in over the comm. “The navigation tower had been deactivated!” 

“What?” Finn exclaimed. 

“They’re not transmitting from that tower anymore,” she clarified. 

“Those ships need that signal,” came Snap’s voice. “It’s gotta be coming from somewhere.” 

Finn’s gaze was inexplicably drawn upward, to the rise. The First Order Destroyer, the only one not part of the Sith fleet. The Steadfast. 

“They figured out what we’re doing. Call off the ground invasion.” Poe orders. 

“Wait,” Finn said. “The nav signal’s coming from that command ship. That’s our drop zone.” 

“How do you know?” Jannah questioned him. 

Finn turns, smug. “A feeling.” 

“You wanna launch a ground invasion on a Star Destroyer?” Tyce’s voice came over the comm, unbelieving. 

Finn would have atmosphere, gravity, and a plucky unit of former Stormtroopers ready to take the fight back to the bullies. What more did a fellow need? Luck, he supposed. Or maybe the Force. 

Finn got up, entering the rear hold of the lander, speaking into his wrist link. “I don’t want to but we can’t take out that ship’s nav system from the air.” He grabs for a blaster rifle, “Give us cover. We gotta keep that fleet there until help arrives.” 

“We hope.” Rose comments, rushing past him. 

He nods. “We hope.” 

As he and Jannah hurried to tell the rest of the landing team, he heard Poe’s voice. “You heard the General. All Wings, cover that lander!” 

General Pryde watched through the viewport, perplexed, as the bulky Resistance craft dived toward the ship. Was this a suicide maneuver? If so, it was folly. An impact would avail them nothing. 

The Resistance careened into their hull and kicked up sparks as if screeched across. It came to a rough stop against a communications array. The ramp began to descend. 

“Sir,” hollered Admiral Griss. “They’ve landed a troop carrier.” 

“Jam their speeders.” Pryde commanded. 

“I can’t sir,” said his comm officer, even as his fingers flew across the console, trying everything he could think of. 

“Why not?” 

He looked up at Pryde, confusion written on his face. “They’re not using speeders.”

Finn and Jannah led the cavalry charge of nearly two dozen orbak riders down the ramp of the lander and onto the hull of the Steadfast. The orbaks had been cooped up for hours, and they ran with joyful abandon, eating up distance at a dizzying speed. 

“Not bad for one lesson!” Finn yelled to Jannah. 

She laughs. “You had a good teacher!”

BB-8 kept pace, rolling so fast his markings were a blur, head canted forward with determination. 

“You’re doing great, buddy!” Finn called down to him. 

He tossed a quick glance over his shoulders to check on his team. Behind Jannh’s company of riders came the rest of his friends, pouring from the lander on foot: Rey with her dual lightsaber, Rose, Connix, Rhys, and Beaumont, and anyone else who could hold a blaster. So far, so good. 

Ahead of them, a Sith troop carrier landed and spit out dozens of crimson clad Troopers. They spread out in formation and began firing. 

Finn’s tear team fired back, providing them some cover. Two Stormtroopers went down right away—Connix and Rhys, no doubt, who were both crack shots. And Rey, she was blocking fires with her lightsaber, directing them back at the Troopers who sent them her way. 

Finn reached into the munitions bag hanging from the saddle. Homemade explosives, cobbled together with what the company could find on Kef Bir, but effective nonetheless. He sighted a squad of Troopers, took aim, and tossed the bomb, allowing it to arc. It exploded into fire and black dust, knocking several Stormtroopers backward. 

They were almost to their destination. Finn and Jannah grabbed their bags of explosives, jumped from their orbaks, and sprinted along the hull. BB-8 kept pace at their heels. 

Another Final Order troop lander touched down on the surface nearby. The ramp descended and out poured a company of crimson Stormtroopers, who immediately began firing. Several of them engaged red jetpacks, which lifted them into the air so they could fire from a superior vantage. 

Finn was _really_ tired of jet Troopers. He fired back, most of his shots going wide, as he and Jannah pressed forward. They had to make this happen fast. More carriers would come. They would be overwhelmed in minutes. Or worse, the ship would simply leave atmo, instantly killing them all.

The orbak riders deployed around them and aimed a barrage of covering fire at the jet Troopers as Finn and Jannah reached the nav deck. Rey ran up, joining them at a bunkerlike structure, built out from the hull of prevent prevent interferences from interior ship frequencies. She checks on BB-8, making sure he’s alright and looks to Jannah and Finn who give her nods to let her know that they were good. 

Elektra came to a narrow stone corridor, and her gaze was pulled forward. A chill pimpled the flesh of her arms, because resting upon a dais was the shape from her vision. Elektra hurried towards the dark silhouette, circling around it to see it in full. A chair with spikes curving up and around it, like a halo of giant thorns. The throne of the Sith. 

Elektra just eyed it, noticing that if you were to fold in the spikes towards the chair, it’d create the hex charm that she saw on Ochi of Bestoon’s speeder. The rumble she heard from earlier grew louder—no, not louder. _Closer_. She slowly rotates herself around, fear embodying her. 

The corridor was broken open into an amphitheater as big as a hollowed out mountain, brimming with robed figures. There were thousands of them, faceless in the dark distance, but pulsing with zealotry. Religious disciples, awaiting the return of the Sith. The rumbling had been chanting; a collective, worshipful acceptance. 

“Welcome, Elektra,” came a voice from her nightmares, deep, resonant, and slow, like he had all the time in the galaxy. “Long have I waited.”

Elektra wills herself to face him. A robed figure, suspended from a strange machinery that she somehow knew was an Ommin harness. Her grip tightened on the lightsaber tightened when she saw his face. He was monstrous, repulsive, with red rimmed milky eyes, skin barely clinging to his skeletal form, disintegrating into oozing sores. His hands half rotted away. 

His spirit was trapped in an artificial form, his power too devastating to contain. 

“The granddaughter of Darth Vader has come home!” He added triumphantly. 

He radiated evil, she wanted to back away but her feet twitched in place. She could not look away. There was something oddly compelling about him. 

“I wanted you here—you _deserve_ to be here, Empress of Vader.” He then motions towards the throne. 

This was nothing she wanted, she reminded herself, even as her feet threatened to step forward. 

“You will take the throne,” he assured her. “It is your birthright to rule, here. It is in your blood.” Several figures stepped forward, draped in crimson, similar to Snoke’s guards, which she and Kylo had defeated together. Elektra had a feeling these guards would prove more formidable adversaries. 

Elektra finally found the strength to back away as Palpatine drew closer in the Ommin harness, forcing herself to sound strong. “I haven’t come to lead the Sith. I’ve come to end them. And you.” 

“As a Jedi?” The Emperor said, his voice oozing contempt. 

“Yes.” 

He smiled. “No. Your hatred, your anger has led you to your true destiny. To finish what Vader had started. You want to kill me, and that is what _I_ want from you. You kill me and my spirit will pass into you. As all the Sith live in me.” 

Elektra then realized what he was saying. He wanted her to kill him so his spirit could reside in her body like a vessel. He was dying in the clone’s body, and he needed a being that could support his power and the only person who ever came close to him in the light side of the Force was Anakin Skywalker. He was long gone now and Palpatine craved for a new host. She was that host. 

“You _will_ become Darth Neptem. And we’ll be one.” 

Ben blew up four ties, covering Vira and Meredith high in the sky but he found himself being drawn towards the feeling of his sister, Bre. He felt her vulnerability, felt her having inner conflict and that scared him. 

He radios to Poe. “I’m heading down.” 

“Why?” 

“Bre.” 

Ben didn’t say no more and he didn’t need to. Poe exactly understood and watched as Ben’s TIE flew straight down onto the ground, the Sith Fleet not even bothering themselves with him. He figured it must’ve been because he was in a TIE or they believed that he was still the Supreme Leader. But hey, if they helped them with the war, then more power to the son of Leia. 

The Star Destroyers engines came to life and Poe felt himself getting antsy, calling in for Finn. “Those thrusters are hot. How are we doing?” 

“We’re gonna blow our way in, and take out that nav tower.” Finn shouts. 

Jannah then added, “All the hatches are blast proof!” 

“BB-8, Rey, you’re up.” Finn nods to them. 

Rey ran out, blaster fire coming her way and she twirls her lightsaber around fast, the blue glowing blades forming a circle as it all ricochet back at them. BB-8 rolls behind her, extending out his pilex driver and unscrewing a panel. Jannah saw Stormtroopers coming up behind Rey and she ran out, throwing an explosive which blew them all away before getting her bow and arrows ready. One after another, Jannah fired at the jet Troopers, one of them spinning into the air and missling into an oncoming TIE which sent it crashing onto the Destroyer’s surface.

BB-8 beeps, the hatch opening and Finn dives down onto his knees, sliding and begins placing two belts of bombs within it, working as fast as he could and pressing the last one. 

Finn grunts, sealing the hatch and the four of them began sprinting away, the explosion going off behind them. It lights across the surface of the Destroyer, travelling upwards in a fiery chain reaction and powers down the tower. 

“There it goes!” 

Poe flies overhead, seeing it out of power. “Nice one, Finn!” He cheers him on. “Nav signal’s down, but not for long.” 

A technician peers up to Pryde. “We’re offline, sir.” 

The general was now angry. These gnats were proving unexpectedly vexing as the Star Destroyers all powered back down to standby mode. They were vulnerable now, but only for a few minutes. Their hulls were strong; the gnats’ mission was futile. 

“Reset the navigational signal!” 

“Minutes away, sir!” 

Jannah, Rey, BB-8, and Finn began heading back to the lander with the orbak company, blasterfire erupting all around them. But Finn came to a halt, realizing that every shot aimed at them was coming from a blaster. The deck cannons had gone silent with the reset. 

The girls and the astromech give him puzzled looks. 

“We need to go!” Jannah yells to him. 

“Finn?” Rey gaped, she sensed something was wrong, deactivating her lightsaber. 

“Listen,” he politely tells her. “The crown cannons have stopped. They’re resetting their systems.”

Jannah didn’t understand, looking toward the lander then back to Finn. “So?”

“I gotta do something.” 

“We’ll do it together.” Rey nods to him and Finn learned better than to argue with her. She looks to BB-8. “Go with Jannah, she’ll take care of you until we get back.” 

The droid beeps, him rolling at the back of Jannah’s heels while Rey and Finn sprinted for the cannon. 

“Still no Falcon or backup,” came Snap Wexley’s voice from the radio. 

R2 beeped a question to Poe. Off comm, he answered, “I don’t know, R2. Maybe nobody else is coming.” 

He stared out at the fleet, his own words echoing in his head. _What would Leia do?_

“What do we do, General?” Vira speaks. 

Poe turns his comm back on and said, “We gotta hit them ourselves.”

“What can we do against these things?” Meredith yells in from her A-wing. 

“Just stay alive!” He shouts, flicking switches. 

Led by Pow, their tiny squadron phalanxed toward a stalled Destroyer, firing on its vulnerable underbelly cannons and the hull lit up with explosions. 

The Emperor said, “The time has come!” 

As one, thousands of disciples fell to their knees, chanting something in a language Elektra had never heard. She watched them all in honor, her chest tightening. 

Palpatine’s eyes widened with zeal. “With your hatred, you will take my life, and you will ascend. As I did, when I killed my master, Darth Plagueis.” He grinned, showing grey teeth and oozing red gums. 

Darth Plagueis, the wisest and powerful Sith that knew the powers of the dark side that he could keep the ones he loved from dying. Palpatine told Anakin of him, she remembered from Luke’s notes. Palpatine told him that because Anakin was afraid to lose Padme and Luke believed that it had been a lie but Elektra knew how to save someone from dying. She had done it to her brother. Palpatine hadn’t been lying at all, the dark side did know more such abilities. 

As much as Elektra wanted to kill Palpatine for everything he’s done, she didn’t want to give into the dark side. And he wanted her to do this, has ever since the beginning. Elektra wouldn’t give him the satisfaction, she’d stay in the light and keep it. She turned off her lightsaber, clipping it back onto her belt. 

“All you want is for me to hate but I won’t. Not even you.” 

“You’re weak. Like your parents, like Luke Skywalker.” 

Elektra clenched her jaw, feeling her anger boil up inside of her but she knew that he was trying to push her towards the edge. To strike him.

She draws in a deep breath. “They were enduring. Selfless. They forgave. Unlike you.” 

“I’ve made this very proposal before with your uncle Luke, but on that unfortunate day he chose to be a Jedi and had been saved by his father. But you’re fulfilling your destiny, Elektra. That’s why you stand here, alone. Like how Anakin did.” He retorts. “The only thing you have close to family here is me.” 

Palpatine then gazes to the ceiling, the cavernous room shaking and Elektra spins to see light pouring down in as a vast stone opens up to reveal Star Destroyers silhouetted against a furious sky. The Resistance fighters were gnats in comparison, darting in and out, dodging fire from monstrous cannons and Final Order TIEs. Explosions lit up the sky, Elektra seeing her friends die. 

“They don’t have long. No one is coming to help them. And you are the one who led them here.” 

Tears filled her eyes as her body shuddered, feeling everything within the Force: Poe’s panic and worry, Vanik’s A-wing exploding into fire and him dying in a blaze. Connix getting shot in the leg, falling down and Rose was instantly at her side, trying to cover her while Rhys started firing wildly to harm whoever had harmed his older sister. She then felt Finn and Rey, both of them running across the Steadfast’s hull as their hearts pounded wildly in their chests. Finn gazing up to the raging war above his head, his hope running out while Rey was still persistently optimistic. _All of it._ Every single thing that was happening in the sky, she felt. 

The Emperor was manipulating Elektra, yes, but he was doing it with the truth. The Resistance fighters were losing badly. And this was her fault. 

“Strike me down. Take the throne. Reign over the new Empire and the fleet will be yours. Only you have the power. Refuse, and they’ll all die. Every single one of them.” 

The thought swelled in her head as she felt numb, her body couldn’t feel anything anymore. Tears fell in torrents from her eyes, and she slowly blinks, feeling shame in what she was planning to do. Anakin had not turned to the dark because he wanted power, he had wanted to protect the one he cared about because of his kind heart. And _that_ was the path that was chosen for her. Turn to the dark to save those she truly and absolutely loved. 

As if reading her thoughts, Palpatine said, “Only now, at the end, you understand.”

Elektra drops her head, taking a moment for herself, sniffling and sadly looks back at Palpatine. His milk glazed eyes staring over her, uncomforting, begging and soulless. She _did_ understand, and that’s what made it worse. Palpatine was going to win after all, once again, like how he did with Anakin. 

Agonized, she nods in a surrender and another tear slips from her eye. 

“Good.” He smirks, lightning flashing up his face with a crackle. 

Ben Solo landed his TIE scout beside an old Rebellion X-wing and he couldn’t help but pausing to stare at the two ships. A sister and a brother, one of light and one of dark; two sides of the same coin. 

Something tingled at the base of his skull, a familiar awareness . . . Bre! But she couldn’t sense him and he knew it was because she was in trouble, Palpatine had done something to the point that all her senses were focused on that. His hand tightened on his father’s blaster, sprinting for the monlith and ducked beneath it, launching himself into the shaft. Nothing would stop him from reaching her . . . until he had caught himself on one of the massive chains dangling from the ceiling. 

“Ow.” He mutters, looking down. 

The floor was so far below him that it was lost in the shadow. Too far to climb down quickly, probably too far to jump down safely. _Probably_. Bre had healed him, he had his mother’s love, his father’s guidance, and even fought with the Resistance. All of it made him forgive and accept himself, but there was still a person who was struggling. Bre.

Bre never forgave herself for what had happened, blaming herself which is why she chose to do good; why she believed she could never go back to who she was. She corrected her wrongs but she still didn’t accept it, believing that there had to be more that she could’ve done and Ben needed her to know that she was forgiven. Because he now fully comprehended what his sister was trying to make up for. 

Bre blamed herself for the creation of Kylo Ren, for allowing Ben to continue down the path of the dark side and from that, she ignored her training of being a Jedi and became Elektra Ren. A fierce warrior trained by the Knights of Ren, the sister of Kylo Ren, and a Stormtrooper commander. She dropped the name Bre ever since and she couldn’t return to it until she could extinguish the darkness she helped to create. And she had. 

_Kylo Ren is dead. My son is alive._ Han had told him. 

When Bre stabbed him with his lightsaber, she killed Kylo Ren. And when she healed him, Ben had been reborn. 

He needed his sister to know, to understand, to see for herself. There was hope for her. And so, Ben Solo called on the Force, and dropped. 

Rey and Finn arrived at the cannon, began circling cautiously, like it was a wounded animal, ready to attack. “We take out this command ship, the whole nav system goes down for good.” 

“Every Star Destroyer in this fleet!” Rey said enthusiastically. “All of them without shields. Brilliant thinking, Finn.”

“Finn!” Rose’s voice boomed from his wrist link just as he began climbing up the cannon. “Where are you and Rey? The lander’s leaving. Finn!”

He reached the massive gun barrel, staring out at and caught sight of Poe’s X-wing still in flight. Finn calls back, “I’m saving what I love.” 

A long pause. Rey whipped out her lightsaber, seeing a jet Trooper heading towards her and she jumped with the help of the Force, slashing at the jetpack which exploded into a ball of fire. Once she lands, Rey pivots from an oncoming attack from a ground Trooper and stabs through him. 

“Go without us,” Finn urged. “We’re taking this entire ship down.” 

Rose finally found her voice as Rhys and Beaumont were supporting Connix up by the arms. “What? How?” 

“We’re gonna hit the command deck. Rose, go.” 

His end dies down and Rose sees them in the far off distance, Finn beginning to spin the gun around to aim and Rey runs to man the trigger. She frowns, not wanting to abandon her two dearest friends, let alone have the possibility of them dying. Rhys and Beaumont shout to her, gathering her attention and reluctantly, she follows. 

“The ritual begins!” The Emperor cried out, and the mass followers surrounding them responded with a ceremonial chant so loud and deep it shook the very ground. “She will strike me down, and pledge herself as a Sith.” 

The lightning in the cavernous cathedral intensified, reflected against Palpatine’s milk blind eyes as Elektra swallowed her sadness which went down painfully. 

The robed figures had not bothered Ben at all when he was here last, but this time they launched themselves at him with fury. He blasted them easily, one shot for every kill. During his run, one tried to blast him from behind but missed terribly as he aimed his blaster backwards without even looking and shot the figure directly in the face. 

He reached the end of the Sith monoliths, sliding out on his feet with the blaster aimed out in front just in case of any other figures. None. He began running around the corner but then stopped as familiar figures manifested in the flashing dark, seeing Vicrul and his scythe, Kuruk and his plasma blaster, and Cardo with his arm cannon. Ben darts his eyesight over to the left, seeing the other three enclosing on him. His Knights. 

For the briefest moment, Ben actually thought they’d come to help but hate rolled off them in waves like fetid air. The Knights of Ren had never been his. They had belonged to the Emperor all along. 

A final betrayal. 

Snoke had been nothing more than a pawn. The Emperor had whispered poison to Ben his whole life. Now even the Knights, those whom he thought his faithful brothers behind his sister, were raising their weapons for the kill. 

They surrounded him slowly, like predators stalking their prey, a move that he’d seen Bre do a lot whenever they had battled each other. Of course he would have, they trained her to fight while Ben went through his trials to earn his place. Everything was all coming together now, like pieces to a puzzle. They could touch the Force in a small way and he could take two or three at a time, but he didn’t stand a chance against all of them at once; not just armed with a blaster. 

Maybe it had been premature to throw his lightsaber into the sea, but what more could there be asked of him? He certainly was the child of Han Solo. 

In the distance, Ben heard the indinstive chanting and knew that he was running out of time. He was so close.

 _Bre,_ he shouted through their connection but there was nothing. It worried him. He needed to be there for his sister! 

He tried to run but Cardo aimed his arm cannon at him and Ben stumbled backwards in the middle. They weren’t going to let him go without a fight. 

“She will draw her weapon,” Palpatine intoned.

Elektra’s face was blank as she reached for Anakin’s lightsaber once again, igniting it at her side. 

“She will come to me.” The crowd responded with a collective yell. 

Elektra stepped closer, smelling Palpatine’s like rotten meat and she gazed over at the hooded Sith followers. 

Ben blasted Cardo away from him with his hand, sending him onto this back and Ushar and Ap’lek had done the same with Ben. They shot him back into Vicrul who tried to swing at him with his scythe but Ben ducked under, only to get hit in the left side of the face with Ushar’s club. Trudgen then came, the blunt end of his vibrocleaver getting Ben in the right side of the face and Ushar gets him again, whacking him from under the chin which sent his head backwards upon impact. Cardo then got up, punching Ben in the gut with his arm cannon which robbed the boy from air. Down on his knees he fell, holding where he had been hit and stared up at him, getting another hit to the face. 

The Knights, in their supreme arrogance, backed away and allowed Ben to gain his feet. He seemed defenseless to them. They must have never really respected him, or even his abilities, to give him ground now. Ben sucked in air as they circled for another attack. 

“She will take her revenge for her family!” Palpatine boomed. 

Elektra continued to approach, his being was intoxicating to the point that she found herself raising her weapon. It reminded her of her dark mirrored self in the Death Star; _Don’t be afraid of who you are._ Those same words that her mother spoke to her, because she knew that Elektra had Vader in her. Which had sparked a new question. Did Leia know this was going to happen? 

“And with the stroke of her saber, the Sith are reborn!” She was only a foot away from him now, lightsaber raised, both hands on the hilt as she stared him down as he spoke with a haunting grin, “The Jedi are dead!” 

Elektra was ready to strike until she finally felt it. Felt _him_. Not Kylo Ren, but someone she had longed to see for a long time. The person she and her parents, and even Luke, had fought for. Ben Solo, surrounded by the Knights of Ren with nothing to save him. 

The left side of his face was bruised and cut, and the bottom lip had been split open. He had been breathing heavily, using his energy and called out to her, finally reaching her through their connection. He had been there for a while but Elektra hadn’t sensed it, her mind was blocked and something told her it had been Palpatine’s doing. Shutting her off to the world, believing she had no other choice than to become one with the dark path. 

He acknowledged her, and Elektra’s lip parted in surprise.

 _I’m here,_ Ben told her. _I’m right here, Bre._

Bre . . . The name felt so much more natural coming from him. It made her heart swell and relief filled her to the point that tears came to her eyes, threatening to release. That one word, just that _one_ word, told her everything she needed to know.

Their connection was different now. It was like coming home. How it should have been all along. A true dyad. One that Palpatine and Snoke had robbed them of. 

“Do it!” Palpatine screamed and Elektra pulled away from Ben, staring at the corpsed man. “Do not hesitate! Show no mercy! Make the sacrifice and become Darth Neptum!”

Elektra lowered the lightsaber behind her back with her right hand as if readying for a massive blow and reached for the Force, the effort making her eyes sting. Luke had projected himself on Crait, and Leia gave everything she had to send a final thought to Ben. Both manifestations of the same power and now, Elektra would use it in her own way. 

The Emperor leaned forward on the harness with anticipation. 

She raised her hand, showing him that it was empty, that she had projected her weapon away. Elektra, right then, witnessed the dawning horror as he realized that Ben found a way through his mental block that he’d done on her. That her and Ben’s bond that’d been refined in the fire of mutual searching, shared grief, rage and hate, but also compassion and empathy, was the one thing he had not foreseen. 

The moment Ben felt the grip of the legacy Skywalker lightsaber in his palm, he knew it belonged to him, an extension of his very own self. He raised it slowly, relishing the feel of it. 

The Knights were startled, backing away a few steps. 

_Surprise,_ he imagined his father saying as he opened up his arms, palms facing up as he gave a shrug.

He attacked in a swing, striking both Vicrul and Cardo, twirling around and batting Ap’lek’s axe away from him. He then spins the lightsaber around in his right hand, before making more blows.

Elektra grabbed Leia’s lightsaber from where she had hooked it to her belt, behind her back and ignited the blue blade at her side in a swinging motion. Around her, the crimson guards formed, raising their blasters and fired as the Ommin harness moved away out of line. She deflected one blast with her good hand, sending it careening into the abdomen of one of the guards while whipping her lightsaber around to block the rest. 

She drew on Ben’s strength and he drew on her fighting skills to out match the Knights since they had taught her which he grinned at. Just like before, they were separate but also together, Elektra battling the guards, Ben battling the Knights. 

_Behind you,_ she warned, and he brought up his saber to block his back, bending over as Trudgen’s vibrocleaver came down and smacked the blue blade. He blows out air from his cheeks, exhaling effortlessly and extends upwards to block Vicrul’s scythe, throwing out his left hand to Force push Ushar back into a nearby pit. 

Ben then throws off Vicrul, stabbing him and as his body falls, he goes directly for Trudgen to repeat the same maneuver. He whirls, slicing through Kuruk, sprinting at Ap’lek and flipped over his body as the knight tried to swing at him with his axe. Ben grabbed onto his shoulder, landing behind him and stabbed through his back, removing the blade. Ben huffs, feeling energized and stared at the bodies of his fallen former comrades. 

“Bre,” he shifts his gaze towards the throne room and bolts for it.

Elektra used the Force to turn a guard the opposite way, having him shoot another as she dodged a blaster bolt. Her lightsaber spins around again, sending blaster bolts back at two guards, leaving two left. She throws her hand out to her side, using the Force to collapse one of the remaining guards under his own weight, kneeling as she does and throws him back into the darkness. She then spun up, facing the last one but Ben got there first, tossing him aside like a piece of garbage. 

Ben walks up to her, both of them facing each other for the space of two breaths. 

_We’re stronger together than apart in the Force,_ he once told her and thinking back to it gave her a boost of confidence and determination. The Solo twins were together again. 

As one, they turned to Palpatine, dropping into fighting stances and raised their lightsabers. 

The Emperor snarled. “Stand together, die together.” He raised his rotting hands and impaled them with the Force. 

Their backs arched against their wills, their arms violently being thrown back as they lost all feeling, lightsabers clattering across the ground. The pain was breathtaking. Palpatine yanked the twins towards himself, their feet lifting off the ground, bodies flying across the floor as they were helpless against his power. Down on their knees they went and as they connected to the ground, a powerful surge from the both of them zapped the Emperor. 

He gasped sharply, his hands flickering with blue electric tendrils. He watched in suspense as they began knitting themselves back together, bones regrowing, pale flesh closing over them. “The life force of your bond,” his voice tinged with wonder. “A dyad in the Force.” 

His gleeful triumphant thoughts washed over Elektra as she struggled against his grip, unable to move. He had won. At last. All those years, all that searching. He tried to create a dyad with Anakin, as his master tried to create one with him. The Rule of Two, a Master always in desperate search of a yet more powerful apprentice, was a pale imitation, an unworthy but necessary successor to the older, purer doctrine of the Dyad. 

Of course, the grandchildren of Anakin would be the ones to have it. To possess such raw potential and power.

“Unseen for generations,” he crowed. “And now the power of two restores the one, true Emperor.” 

Ben desperately tried to reach his hand out to Bre. He knew—no, he _sensed_ her not being able to withstand what Palpatine was about to do to them. She had healed the vexis, fought Ben then almost gave him all of her energy to heal him, and she hadn’t rest once. Bre was running on empty, and all he wanted was to hold her like how he had when they were kids. 

Palpatine raised his perfect, healed hands, and called out on all the dark power of the Force and the Sith who had come before him, and pulled the life from their very bodies. It poured from them like a river of light, leaving them weaker and weaker. 

Elektra screamed in anguish while Ben was able to withstand some of it, and hearing his sister’s cry only made him more upset that he couldn’t fight against what was happening. 

The Emperor laughed as his body strengthened, becoming whole once again. The milky film faded from his eyes, revealing golden iries around obsidian pupils and when there was nothing left to take, Elektra and Ben’s bodies gave out. Ben falling onto his back in a heap, his legs creased out to the side and Elektra landing directly on her left side, her temple whacking off the ground harshly which cut the corner of her eyebrow. 

“This is it!” Snap Wexley called from inside his X-wing. He fired and felt a surge of exhultation when the belly cannon lit up like a fireworks display. He’d gotten pretty good at this. All those lessons with his stepfather, Wedge, had paid off. 

Snap’s console beeped. 

“Fleet’s locking onto a navigation signal,” he warned everyone who was listening. “They’re gonna split!” 

TIEs came in all around, the squadron breaking up and flying off on their own to try and survive the fight. 

“Snap, they’re on your tail.” Poe called in, seeing three of them on the pilot. 

He looked up as they fired at him. “Yeah, I see ‘em.” 

But he didn’t see the other TIE, the one that came out of nowhere but Poe did. 

“No, no, no, Snap, Snap!”

A blast rocked his cockpit, and he screamed, his mind only thinking of one thing. Snap had just enough time to reach down for the tiny holo he kept on his dash, whispering “Kare” before everything exploded with unbearable light. 

“No!” Poe yells, powerless as Wexley’s ship peppered down against the Destroyer’s hull. 

Cries of terror and despair were lighting up his commlink. They were getting torn apart. 

“Alpha Three is down.” 

“They’re on my tail! I can’t—” A scream. 

Vira started crying. “They’re everywhere!”

“Delta leader’s hit!” Meredith hollered. 

“Losing altitude!” 

“General, what’s our next move?” Tyce called. 

His people—his friends—were dying all around him and all he could do was listen, his eyes filling with tears and he closed them for a moment. 

“Poe, what now?!” 

“My friends,” Poe said, his voice tremulous. “I’m sorry. I thought we had a shot . . . But there’s just too many of them.” He’d learned nothing from Crait. Instead, he’d just gotten people killed agai—

A familiar voice broke through on comms: “But there are more of us, Poe. There are more of _us_.” It was Lando.

Poe’s heart leap in his chest, yanking on his yoke, flipping his X-wing upwards over the hull of a Destroyer just to see ships popping into sight all over the place. Freighters, fighters, medical frigates, longhaulers, from every sector of the galaxy, from every era Poe had ever heard of. Hundreds. No, thousands. A fleet of fleets. 

“Look at this.” Poe eyed all of them. “ _Look at this!_ ” He was in complete awe, the spark of Resistance had become a fire.

The Millennium Falcon flew down into view, Lando laughing. 

Finn watched from down below with Rey, gaping at the sky. “Lando, you did it.” He yelled. “You did it!” 

Poe swoops in straight behind the Falcon, joining the thousands of fighters, grigates, and well armed freighters, calling in to everyone. “Hit those underbelly cannons! Every one we knock out is a world saved!” 

Within seconds, the Millennium Falcon charged ahead and had taken out a cannon. That ship made everything look easy. 

“Nice flying, Lando.” Wedge Antiller’s voice spoke and Poe realized the old Rebellion captain, and his former flight instructor, was operating one of the Falcon’s turret stations. 

He wished Leia could be here to see this. 

For this, Pryde had no backup plan as all the officers began flicking switches to try and get their systems to respond. “Where did they get all these fighter craft?” He demanded to know. “They have no navy.” 

“It’s not the navy, sir.” Admiral Griss was gaping. The light had gone out of his eyes. “It’s just . . . people.” 

The tide was turning. Poe’s patchwork navy pummeled the defenseless fleet. One Destroyer listed sideways, smoke rising from its hull. It collided with another, and both dropped to the surface, helpless in Exegol’s gravity. Another dropped after a pair of proton torpedoes hit it in the gut. Soon Destroyers were falling away all over the place. 

But the TIEs remained viciously relentless, and they were still targeting Poe specifically but as Vira Hurtling promised from before, her Y-wing went into the assit position beside him and gunned the TIE, which exploded into a satisfying fireball. 

As Poe continued, he witnessed a Y-wing flying towards a Destroyer and gunned the whole thing down by itself. The person flipping away from it, grinning, “So long, sky trash!” 

He turned in his cockpit, watching the ship as it screamed past. “Who’s that flyer?” He muttered. 

“Take a guess, Exotic Dancer.” She responded and the next thing he heard was Babu Frik whooping. 

Poe’s relief was so huge he almost choked on it. “Ha!” He had thought his friends were dead. “Zorii, Babu, you made it!”

This day just kept getting better and better. 

Elektra and Ben still layed on the floor as Emperor Palpatine released himself from the Ommin harness and drifted down. He stood straight and strong now. Invincible. His voice raised to the throng. “Look what you have made.” Their chanted response was thunderous, and he stood, hands slightly raised as if absorbing their worship as power. 

Ben forced his near lifeless body over, seeing his sister as she remained limp beside him. “Bre,” he weakly called to her. He could barely feel anything from her, and it made him afraid. 

He struggled onto his hands and knees, inching towards her and Palpatine sensed him, losing his celebratory smile and scowled at the boy. 

“Bre?” He tries again, his voice hoarse. 

Elektra’s eyelids were heavy but she managed to peel them open just enough to see a blurry image of her brother trying to reach out to her.

“Bre—” Instantly, Palpatine lifted Ben with no more than a thought, paralyzing his body as he hovered and faced his enemy once again. 

“You believed that you both could defeat me,” Emperor Palpatine remarks, pointing at him. That was the thing of taking a person’s life force, you don’t just get healed, you also get a look inside of them; at who they are, what they thought. “But you made _this_ possible, young Solo. And now, your coming together is your undoing.” 

“It’ll be yours.” Ben remarks against his hold. 

Palpatine’s hand jerks forwards and Ben is sent back through the cathedral violently, landing directly onto an outcropping that bordered the edge of a flashing abyss, hitting it with a thunderous crack. He slips over and down, but not before he manages to capture himself in a groove. 

“Be-en.” Elektra’s weak voice cried out as she felt the impact of his hit throughout her whole entire spine, the exact location where he’d struck. She barely could draw breath as she focused on where her brother had been thrown to. 

“Do not fear their feeble attack, my faithful.” The Emperor sits upon the throne, Ben already forgotten as his lips spread apart into a nightmarish grin and lifted his face to Exegol’s sky. 

Elektra strained herself, trying to support herself up on her left shaking arm and caught sight of Palpatine. 

“Nothing will stop the return of the Sith!” 

He raised his hands as though reaching toward the battle overhead. Even through her haze of weakness and exhaustion, Elektra could sense him drawing on the Force with her and Ben’s power. She knew what he was about to do. 

_“No!”_ She croaked out. 

Tears streamed down her face as he used their stolen power to create a conduit of Force lightning. Writhing, crooked tendrils of light shot from his fingers, coalesced into a thick stream of light that burst into the sky, flooding the Resistance ships. They sparked defenselessly against the onslaught, tilting on their axis. 

Poe watched in horror as raw power shot up from the planet like a massive geyser, devouring everything in its path. Several fighters were suddenly adrift, their controls no longer responding. The Tantive IV trembled, as if fighting a tractor beam. It listed to the side, and began to drop. 

Poe wanted to look away. Leia’s ship . . . he clenched his jaw and stared anyway. 

The trembling intensified. One of the engines detonated. Explosions spread out along the hull, and suddenly the Tantive was dropping like a meteor, past the Final Order fleet and out of sight. 

Instantly, the console of his own fighter was sparking, shocking his hand even through hos flight gloves. “R2, my systems are failing.” 

From the droid socket of his X-wing came the sound of an astromech screaming. 

Poe punched his comm. “Does _anyone_ copy?”

No response. 

The Emperor would not stop laughing, light still shooting upward from his fingertips. Elektra dropped onto her back, hating the grating and smug sound as she watched black debris raining down everywhere, trailing smoke and fire. She was near death and she knew it with certainty. Elektra didn’t want the last thing she’d see to be her friends dying, nor the last thing she heard was Palpatine’s laugh. 

The Emperor would not stop laughing, light still shooting upward from his fingertips. Elektra dropped onto her back, hating the grating and smug sound as she watched black debris raining down everywhere, trailing smoke and fire. She was near death and she knew it with certainty. Elektra didn’t want the last thing she’d see to be her friends dying, nor the last thing she heard was Palpatine’s laugh. 

She reached for Ben, hardly feeling him. Their connection had weakened when the Emperor stole their life force.

Elektra’s limbs refused any order to move, much less stand, so she just began sobbing. Her tears fell down the sides of her face, knowing she had failed so utterly. 

The Emperor’s power was beautiful to behold, reaching ever higher, spreading out like a flower of light. In a way, she and Ben had made that. But the Emperor was using it for unspeakable evil. And now she was nearly dying. 

Slowly, Elektra remembered her training and she drew in a deep breath, trying to collect her thoughts and settle her emotions to focus. “Be with me.” She begs in a whisper. 

She touched the Force, and it would be a part of her always. Like how her mother said. 

“Be with me. Be with _us_.” She pleas for Ben, too.

The battle above disappeared. Instead, Elektra saw a perfect sky, vast with stars. Peaceful. Light filled. It was like she was staring through a window to somewhere else, a place between places. 

“Be with us.” 

Her body relaxed. She embraced peace and calmness. 

**_Bre,_ **the voice she’d been hearing for so long came to her, **_you will try._ **

Then others joined from all different directions. 

**_Ben,_ **

**_Bre,_ **

**_Ben,_ **

**_Bre,_ **

She recognized them all because they made themselves known to her, prescenes filling her awareness. Some ancient, some still anchored to the living in a strange way.

**_Bring back the balance, Ben and Bre, as I did._ **

That same voice that had been whispering to her to find the Skywalker legacy lightsaber, that voice that led her to the Jedi Temple on Ahch-To, that voice that led her to Vader’s helmet, that voice that led her to Vader’s wayfinder . . . It finally dawned on her who it had been. It had been the very same person that her family saw in her: Anakin Skywalker.

A female then speaks, **_In the night, find the light._**

Mace Windu was next: **_You’re not alone._**

 ** _Alone, never have you been,_** Master Yoda says.

 ** _Every Jedi who ever lived, lives in the both of you._ **It was Qui-gon Jinn.

Anakin then spoke again, his voice louder than the rest. **_The Force surrounds you.._ **

**_Let it guide you._ **

**_As it guided us._ **

**_Feel the Force flowing through you._**

 ** _Let it lift you!_ **Anakin encourages her which sends a surge through her body.

Adi Gallia softly speaks: **_Rise._**

Elektra turned onto her left side, smacking her right wounded hand onto the ground and she pushed. She could feel her strength returning but her body, like her hand, was still injured. 

**_We stand behind both of you_ **. She could sense Qui-gon nodding to her and Ben. 

She then felt her connection to Ben growing once again. Ben’s ankle had been twisted and he was pretty sure he’d broken at least two ribs, but he was climbing back up to the throne room. 

**_Rise in the Force._ **Yoda cheers the twins on. 

Elektra got a knee beneath her, leveraging herself up onto her toes. 

The climb up was excruciating. Each time Ben reached for a handhold, a hot knife of pain stabbed his left side. Dizziness threatened to send him tumbling down into the abyss, but he kept on, one hand over the other, listening to the voices. 

**_In the heart of a Jedi lies their strength,_ **Kanan Jarrus comments. 

Elektra grunts in pain, crouching and gasping for air. Her muscles didn’t want to obey. Every movement turned her very bones to knives of pain. 

**_Rise_ **, Obi-Wan utters. 

Qui-gon does the same. **_Rise._**

 ** _Ben, Bre,_** Elektra gasped, her breath getting caught in her throat as she heard Luke’s deep and insistent voice that rose above all the others. **_The Force will be with you._**

 ** _Always._** Leia finishes. 

With all of her strength, the last Jedi rises, standing tall as her breathing becomes heavy. Ben’s fingers grasp the top, hauling himself over the side and dragging himself onto his feet. He began limping himself forwards, standing next to Bre. 

The avalanche of light from Palpatine’s fingertips ceased, him rising from the throne and stepped forward to get a good look at the young bruised and determined twins. 

“I will _not_ deny my anger,” Bre announces to him.

Ben then finishes with, “and I will _not_ reject my love.” 

Ben then summoned Leia’s lightsaber which skidded across the stone and smacked into his right hand and Elektra reached for Anakin’s, the blades igniting. 

“We’re the grandchildren of Anakin _and_ Darth Vader. We are the light and we are the darkness.” 

“So be it.” The Emperor’s eyes glowed with lingering power. “Let your deaths be the final word in the story of rebellion.” He reached with his arms, sending Force lightning zagging toward them. 

Elektra and Ben whipped up their lightsabers and blocked their individual attacks. The impact nearly knocked both twins from their feet, but they reached for the Force, and stood their ground. 

Palpatine’s attack intensified and Elektra grunted as her teeth clenched, trying to hold it off. “You two are nothing!” He yelled at them. “Just the children of a Scrumrat—a scoundrel! You’re no match for the power in me. I am all the Sith, I am the Emperor!” 

Elektra and Ben’s wrists felt like it was going to break from the pulses pushing them back on their blades, making their footing stumble. But it wouldn’t. Not today. 

“We’re Solos,” Ben nods to him, agreeing, a plan churning in his mind.

Elektra sensed it, smirking, already on board with it. “And _we’re_ Skywalkers.” 

She brought her lightsaber over, crossing its blade with Ben’s, creating an impenetrable shield. Together they stepped forward, closing in the distance between them, pushing back against his onslaught. Every step was anguish for the twins, taking everything they had left to give. 

The lightning began to feed back on the Emperor. It ravaged his face, and he tossed his head back in agony, and in denial of what was happening. Elektra and Ben pursued mercilessly, one foot in front of the other, absorbing power from the Force. Finally, they were ready. The both of them gathered their strength, their faith in the Force, their love for their friends and for each other, their anger, and they thrust it all at the Emperor. 

He staggered backward, his own power reflected against him. It devoured him completely, ripping away his newly healed fingers, searing away the skin of his face, his very bones, until he was disintegrating. 

Ben and Elektra then sent out one last thought to him. _All the Jedi live in us._

They throw another pulsating thrust at him and like a collapsing stardust, what remained of him coalesced into a single point, which then exploded with a massive shock wave that sent Elektra and Ben sliding back on their heels. The Sith throne shattered. The ceiling bouldered down around them, crushing thousands of disciples in the amphitheater.

Finn jumped down from the cannon as Rey touched wires together, sparking and a split second later the cannon fired repeatedly at the deck of the Steadfast. 

General Pryde felt the floor in the bridge begin to slant sideways as several explosions drew his gaze to the viewport. He dashed forwards to see the hull of the Steadfast was dangerously tipped, and the Resistance ships were recovering from the strange energy that held many of them in its grip. For the first time, Pryde considered that maybe the Emperor would not restore the glory of the former Empire. 

In his last moment, Allegiant General Pryde realized that the return of Emperor Palpatine was meaningless if he were not alive to see it. All his efforts, his sacrifices had not been worth it. 

The bridge exploded. Pryde fell. 

“Poe, the command ship!” Meredith states over the comm. 

He gazes out and sees the Steadfast. “Their fleet is stuck here! They’re toast! Come on!” He rallies up the Resistance pilots and throws a few switches. “Finn, are you seeing this?” 

“Finn didn’t board the lander,” Rose’s voice came in. 

Poe then lost his smile, heart sinking into his chest. The feeling that Rey had when they thought they were about to be executed now had hit him. “They’re still on that command ship?”

He could not lose Finn. He _would_ not. He peeled his X-wing away from the attack and dove for the Steadfast which was pointed tip downward, ready to spear the planet’s surface. 

He buzzed by a comm tower, now thrusting parallel to the ground, and he almost missed the two figures of Rey and Finn. Rey had caught herself on the comm tower that stuck up from the hull while Finn missed it, her reaching out for him and he caught end on her lightsaber which he clung too. He just looked up at her with panic, thinking he was going to die as she strained to pull up on her lightsaber to get him on the platform with her. 

“I see them!” Poe called. “I’m going to get them.”

“General, you won’t make it.” Vira warned. 

“Trust me, I’m fast!” He insisted, already turning his fighter around. 

“Not as fast as this ship,” Lando’s voice spoke. “Hold on, Chewie!” 

The Falcon the meteored toward the Star Destroyer, then angled to come up from below. 

Rey had gotten Finn up with the power of the Force, them both standing on the comm tower and they watched as the Falcon’s hull rose below them. They leapt just as the Steadfast finally succumbed to gravity and dropped toward oblivion, landing hard on the Falcon’s hull. A hatch opened revealing Chewbacca who waved at them to hurry. They sprinted across the top of the Falcon and dropped into the hold. 

“Chewie, you got the kids?” Lando hollered from the cockpit. 

Chewie roared confirmation, and the Falcon sped away. 

As the smoke cleared, Elektra gazed at the tumbled wreckage of the cathedral around her and her brother. They were covered head to toe in dust and gravel, and her hair had been knocked loose from it’s ponytail, framing her bloody face. She couldn’t feel her arms and legs. Vaguely, she heard the clank of her lightsaber hitting the ground. When had she let go of it? 

Ben peers down to the lightsaber then up at her, she looked dazed, her eyes staring out into nothingness. “Bre?” 

She reached for the Force one last time . . . She felt Rey and Finn, felt how they were safe. She reached even more, feeling Poe, Rose, Vira, Meredith, Rhys, Connix, Chewie, Lando . . . 

Giving absolutely everything was no big deal at all, she and Ben had saved them all. 

Elektra's legs gave out, and she crumpled to the ground before Ben could even move.

Finn was running for the Falcon’s turret stations, Rey on his heels when something hurt their very souls, and they staggered. Rey was captured by Chewie while Finn barely caught himself on the wall of the corridor. 

“No, El,” he whispered. 

She was gone. He had just begun to understand how her being could weigh so strongly in his mind. He should have told her. He meant to. Now, he’d never had the chance. Like how Rey didn’t have one to tell her that she loved her. 

Chewbacca asked what was wrong. 

But Finn’s breath had left him completely, and he couldn’t respond. 

“Chewie,” Rey started as agonized tears streamed down her cheeks. 

This was going to hurt him more than Leia. 

The pain in Ben's chest was suddenly so much worse than that of a couple of broken ribs when he realized that he felt nothing from his sister. She seemed at ease as if she were sleeping on the ground but he knew that she wasn’t. 

He fell onto his knees, crawling towards his baby sister and wrapped his arms around her limp form, yanking her onto his lap. Bre’s skin was growing cold and he felt the tears coming to his eyes, his very own breath shaking. She had been good. Kind. No matter what had happened between them, what he’d done, she’d always shown him compassion. 

He cast his gaze around the ruined cathedral as if answers might light in the shadows but there was nothing. Just aching emptiness and a sense of loss so sharp and terrible it was like a vise around his gut. 

Ben pulled her against his chest and hugged her to himself for a moment. Luke was gone. Their parents. And now Bre. He couldn’t make himself believe it. His sister was the strongest person he’d ever known. She accepted her darkness along with her light and saved everyone. She deserved better. 

As he held her, he sensed something. The tiniest spark. The Force hadn’t taken her yet. He knew exactly what Bre would do, in his place. It was the easiest decision he’d ever made. 

“Hold on,” he whispers, lowering her back down into his arms, “I got you.” 

Ben cradled her gently and placed his hand on her abdomen, closing his eyes. He didn’t have much strength left but he called on the Force, about to do something he’d never done before. Fortunately, Bre had shown him how to give. 

Ben poured everything into her. He found reservoirs he didn’t know he had. He gave her his whole self. 

Her diaphragm rose with a breath, and her warm hand covered his as her eyes flickered open. His eyes then opened, peering down to her and she seemed surprised to see him as she sat up gently. She stared at him for a moment and he waited for her to understand what had just happened. 

“Ben,” she whispered, smiling and it was the greatest gift she could have given him. 

His heart was full as Bre wrapped her arms around him, giving him a hug and he held her tight. She had saved the galaxy and he had saved her, that’s all he wanted. _All_ that he wanted. 

She then drew back slowly, concern on her face. She could feel him growing cold. “Ben?” 

He just smiled at her, chuckling softly before he lost it and felt himself drifting away. Ben Solo had no regrets as he collapsed to the ground, his final awareness was of his sister clasping his hand with her own because she had tried to keep him. 

Elektra stared down at her brother, Ben Solo, and begged for him to come back. “Don’t leave me, please.” She cried but the Force reached for him in welcome, his hand vanishing from hers and his body followed.

Tears streamed down her face, her heart aching as she wailed and lowered her head against his empty tunic. A half of her was missing now, she was no longer in a dyad. 

A voice came to her through the Force, clear and strong. **_I will always be with you,_** Ben said. 

She sniffled, lifting her head and nodded slowly as she let the truth of it wash over here. “No one’s ever really gone,” she whispered. 

The moment Elektra came back to herself, Finn and Rey knew. They both launched themselves to the cockpit, informing Chewie and Lando as they scanned the horizon from the viewport. Debris was falling everywhere. Exegol was going to be a wasteland after this. Not that it had been paradise to begin with. But all those Star Destroyers were going to smolder for years. 

There was no sign of Elektra. 

Neither Chewie nor Lando insisted that they leave the cockpit, so Rey and Finn stayed, searching, searching, searching . .

“There, look!” Rey pointed to a battered T-65 X-wing.

Finn then hollered into his wristlink: “Red Five is in the air! Elektra’s alive!” 

“I see her,” Poe acknowledged. 

Finn didn’t think the moment could get any better, but then a transmission beeped on the comms console. Chewie jabbered with excitement. 

“People are rising up all over the galaxy, Poe.” Finn informed him. “We did it!” 

He heard the smile in the pilot’s voice as he said, “We did it.” 

On Endor’s forest moon, Wicket stood in the exact spot he had thirty-one years ago when rejoicing in the destruction of the Death Star. He had been a cub then, his fur still a youthful brown. Debris had rained down in the sky for a decade afterward, but life on Endor would never go quietly, and the moon fought back with lust verdancy. 

Then the First Order had come. 

Wicket pointed toward the sky as a chunk of Star Destroyer fell like a fiery comet. “See that?” He said to his tiny son, Pommet, in Ewokese. “Our friends did that.” 

“Princess Leia?” Pommet asked wide eyed, for he’d heard all the stories. “C-3PO?” 

Wicket nodded. He had no doubt the golden, godlike one was responsible for yet another deliverance.

Arriving back to Ajan Kloss was a sight to see. Everyone was hugging, rejoicing at being alive. Finn and Rey jogged down the Falcon’s access ramp into the jungle, most of her ally ships had returned to their own systems and planets, but a few had decided to follow the surviving Resistance ships home. Their base was going to be fuller and busier than ever. 

The lander touched down next, and BB-8 rolled down the ramp followed by a jubilant Rose. He found D-O and the cone droid scream-babbled with happiness. He plunged toward the larger droid and whipped circled around him, barking with welcome. 

Everyone around them was reuniting: C-3PO greeted R2-D2 as he was craned out of Poe’s fighter, Beaumont and Klaud and Connix were sharing a laugh. D’Acy and Tyce hugged, Vira ran to Rhys and indulged him into a long kiss. Even the orbaks were celebrating, tossing their manes and stomping on cue for the pilots in exchange for treats. 

Chewie was lifting Rose off her feet when Finn saw Maz interrupt. “This is for you.” He got down on one knee, and when they were of height, she placed Han’s Medal of Bravery in Chewie’s hand. “He’d want you to have it,” she added.

Finn caught sight of Poe stepping away from his X-wing and giving a friendly nod to Zorii. He ran for the pilot, calling out his name and Poe turned, pointing a finger at him with a grin. They pull each other in a tight hug, Poe placing his hand on the back of Finn’s neck and pulls away, giving him a kiss. One of partnership, of mutual love. 

Finn pulled away, smiling wide and went back, kissing Poe once more before Rey came over and gave Poe a hug herself. 

The pilot then lost his grin, thinking. “Leia thought they’d destroyed the Emperor at the Battle of Endor but he came back. More powerful than ever.” 

“You think he might come back again,” Rey said, sensing his hesitation. 

“Maybe,” Poe replied. He was acting general now, and like any good general he was anticipating what fight still lay ahead. “Or some other evil will rise. Evil always rises.” 

“Naw,” Finn shook his head.

Poe gave him a questioning look. 

“What El did—what Rey and I felt that she did—there’s nothing to worry about anymore.” 

“Elektra,” Rey uttered, dashing off away from the boys and began searching through the crowd. 

Lando looked around at the Ajan Kloss base. Everyone knew who he was, but it was different, being known without knowing. Of all his oldest, best friends, only Chewie was left. He was happy for everyone though. This new galaxy, the New New Republic, was for the next generations to deal with. He’d get himself back to Pasaana soon. In the meantime, he was just glad to have helped. 

“Where are you from, General?” He turned over his shoulder, seeing Jannah, the kid from Kef Bir. 

“The gold system,” he said. “What about you?” 

“I don’t know,” she replied, and her gaze turned distant. “I don’t know.” 

It hit him like a proton torpedo to the gut. He wasn’t returning to Pasaana after all. Thousands, maybe millions of kids had been taken by the First Order like his own little girl. And some of them, a very few, were special. The ones like Finn and Jannah, who had somehow managed to shake their First Order conditioning and make right choices. 

Lando and the Lady Luck would help these special kids. Find their families, if that’s what they wanted. Help them discover their place in the new galaxy.

“Well,” he said to Jannah. “Let’s find out.” 

The wondrous smile she gave him told him all he needed to know. 

Elektra landed Luke’s X-wing and hopped out of the cockpit. BB-8 rolled toward her, warbling with excitement. She knelt down, giving a small smile to the orange and white droid and she saw her reflection in his lens. Her hair was long and flowing, her left temple was purple and blue, blood was smeared in with dust on her face, and her white shirt was dirty with black smudges and drops of her own blood. She looked like an absolute wreck. 

A female voice knocked her from her trance, peering to see Rey running for her and she stood, taking long strides towards the girl. Rey tried to speak but Elektra didn’t give her a chance, she cupped her cheeks gently and kissed her passionately. 

Rey kissed back an instant, resting her hands on Elektra’s cheeks as well and kept her there for a moment. 

Elektra was the first to pull away, looking into Rey’s beautiful eyes. “So you know,” she whimpered, her voice wavering as her eyes became glassy with tears once again. “So you _know_.” 

Rey nodded. “I know,” Elektra then pulled her into a hug, Rey looping her arms around her waist.

The two girls wandered through the base, Elektra taking strength and joy in everyone’s gaiety, but she still felt alone. Sure, she had the Resistance and Rey, but the missing weight of Ben not being there still lingered. People clapped her on the back as she passed, word already having spread that Palpatine was dead and it had been because of her. 

She spotted Poe and Finn, shouldering through the crowd, looking for her, too. Their gazes caught and it took all of Elektra to not burst into tears. Ben’s memories, a part of his energy living within her, had told her that they accepted him as he came to this base and tried to atone for his past mistakes. 

Finn was the first to move, hugging her and she couldn’t hold it any longer. She began sobbing in his arms and he held her closer to his chest, cradling her head delicately. Poe then wrapped his good arm around the both of them and Rey joined in on the other side, them all enclosing Elektra to let her know that they all cared deeply for her. 

Her tears died down but Finn was the one that began crying now. “El, I’ve been meaning to tell you—”

“I already knew,” she said, thinking of the way his presence had become so bright in her mind. “The moment you held the lightsaber, I knew you could touch the Force. I was just waiting for you to tell me.” 

A warmth flowed through the four of them, a connection separate from the Force and in its own way just as powerful. Elektra didn’t care to put a name to it. She only wanted to live in the moment and let it flow over her like water in the desert. 

The Falcon touched down on an empty desert plain. The twin suns of Tatooine had yet to show their but early morning light washed the land in pink and white. Elektra and BB-8 descended the ramp and squinted against the reflected brightness. The place was so stark, the ground so bleached. 

Elektra stepped forward, toward a domed abode building jutting from the sand. Only BB-8 accompanied her. All of her friends had offered to come, but she insisted they stay behind. 

The adobe building had an arched doorway, but years of wind and sand had half buried it. There’d be no accessing the Lars homestead that way. She stepped past the building and discovered what appeared to be a large sinkhole, half filled with sand. A close look revealed an arched window and a half covered door at the base of the sinkhole, built into adobe walls. 

She trekked down the sand drift while BB-8 stayed at the top, watching her cautiously as she stood near the base of a broken condenser tower. 

So many memories of yearning, loss, worry, depreciation and love, from Luke and from Anakin. She could _feel_ them. There was a cavelike entrance in the wall and she was drawn forward, passing into shadow her eyed had adjusted and she noted a long dining table, covered with dust. She ran a figure through the dirt, tracing a line of soft blue. Luke and Anakin both dined here. 

An adjoining alcove contained some kind of beverage dispenser, but most of the levers and paneling had been scavenged, probably by the local Jawas. A single tall beverage cup made of plastex lay on its side, oddly pristine. 

She wandered around for a few more minutes and discovered what used to be a speeder garage, Luke’s sleeping loft, and the remains of an electrostatic repeller that had probably kept sand and dust away for years. She stood in the center for a while, taking it all in. Two generations of her family had been here, and she was being the third. 

“This is where it all started,” Elektra whispered aloud to herself. 

The cracked adobe walls and jutting pipes made for an easy climb. She reached the top and BB-8 warbled to her, asking if they had any other places to go. They had already visited Corellia, Chandrila, and Ahch-To, even Kef Bir. Tatooine was their fifth stop. 

“This was the last place.” She informs the droid with a tender smile. “We can head—”

Light snagged Elektra’s eye, and she turned her head. 

Anakin stood on the edge of the homestead, glowing blue, smiling at her. His soft brown wavy hair and blue-green eyes paralleled to hers, and he radiated proudness and unfathomable love for her. She and Ben had brought balance like how he had, realized that to find it you must accept both parts of yourself because that’s what the Force was about; the light and the dark. Anakin had led the way for her and she followed; he’d always been with her, tied to her, and now he could finally go because someone else watched her now. 

Elektra nods to her grandfather and he blinks away slowly, her turning to see the vast desert morning filling the sky. Tatooine’s twin suns rose on a new day and she smiled with euphoria, thinking about how Anakin and Luke had both watched that very same sunrise. 

On Ajan Kloss, Finn sits in a circle with young kids, all around the ages of six and eleven, telling them the story of Elektra, the granddaughter of Darth Vader, niece of Luke Skywalker, the daughter of Han Solo and Leia Organa, and the twin sister of Ben Solo. They were few of the many that were saved by Lando and Jannah from the First Order, the ones who were orphans or couldn’t remember their families just stayed with the Resistance. 

The story of Elektra Ren had been one that the kids were anticipating for two weeks now. She had been gone, visiting her family’s planets to get more in touch with her lineage and the kids hadn’t met her yet, but they already idolized her. And Finn believed that that’s what his friend deserved, she and Ben helped save the galaxy from Palpatine and it needed to be told. 

Rey sat with D-O, watching a little girl raise her hand. “Mr. Dameron, is she ever coming back?” 

Finn nods, so sure of it. “She’ll come back. And when she does, we’ll be here waiting. All of us.” The kids smiled with relief. “Now, you all head out and play.” 

They didn’t need to be asked twice. They all jumped to their feet, dashing out into the jungle and D-O went after them. 

Finn stands, helping up Rey. “Anything from her?” 

“Not since Ahch-To.” Rey shakes her head. “It’s been almost three weeks now.” 

Finn then felt something, a small tremor in the Force and Rey felt it, too. They hurried, seeing the Falcon touching down on the jungle floor. The ramp opened and out came their friend with her haversack, wearing Ben’s black sweater that she stitched together and Han’s brown jacket, her hair blowing back as a cool breeze swept through. 

Rey rushes forward, giving her a hug and a welcoming kiss on the cheek. “I missed you.” 

“I missed you too,” she cooes to Rey and then steps up to Finn, hugging him. “And I missed you.” 

“Likewise.” 

“Hey!!” Poe’s voice boomed and Finn let Elektra go, allowing his boyfriend to come and get in his hug. “You realize how constantly annoying it was hearing these two talk about you?” He motions to Rey and Finn in a joking manner. 

“Alright, alright.” Finn waves him off. 

A kid then gasped. “It’s her!” 

The Jedi turned, seeing a group of kids running up to her, all of them speaking at once. 

“You’re her!”

“You’re really here!”

“We heard so much about you!” 

She smiled, kneeling down to their heights. “Hi, nice to meet you all.” Finn and Rey had told her about the kids, how they came to Ajan Kloss and she had been waiting to greet them. 

“You have it with you?” The little girl that spoke to Finn from before asks with enthusiasm. “Your lightsaber?” 

She stood again, right hand reaching to her side, pulling it out and they all gasped in awe. She then pointed it upwards, igniting it by pressing the activation button by the emitter which made their eyes get that twinkle. 

Her lightsaber glowed lilac-purple. It was single bladed, hilt was grey and had been styled like how Ben’s was but she kept the black rubberized grip ribbing pattern that Anakin had on the bottom of his on hers. It was beautiful, fitting so perfectly in her hand and tied into who she was—who she is—and she _loved it_. 

Finn, Rey, Poe, and even the kids, saw her lingering gaze on the lightsaber, knowing she was thinking of something intently. 

“My dear,” Maz Kanata strolled over, eyeing the girl that she had watched grow and how she deactivated her lightsaber to give the older woman her full attention. 

Maz felt the rift in the Force from her the moment she landed and she knew what she Leia had hoped for. 

“I once told you if you live long enough, you see the same eyes in different people.” She speaks, standing before her, the children, and Rey, Poe, and Finn. “ _So who are you?_ ”

A gentle smile appeared on the lips of the daughter of Han and Leia, her answer easy. “I’m Bre. Bre Skywalker.” 

The final, and official name on the list. Bre for her connection to the Solo name and Skywalker for carrying on the legacy.

Bre Skywalker had walked to her quarters, reached into her haversack to pull out Anakin’s lightsaber, placing it on her one shelf before grabbing Luke’s, her mother’s, and lastly, Kylo Ren’s that she had fished out from the ocean with the Force. Her sitting them all side by side, on display next to the Jedi texts. 

Poe called out to notify everyone about lunch being ready and she moseyed on out, taking a look around the Resistance; her family. Connix and Rose were having a little double date with Rhys and Vira, Meredith was looking over a few things with Beaumont, Finn was talking to Chewie, and Rey had two plates in her hand, no doubt the other being for Bre. 

People were precious. They were life and light. Bre couldn’t have survived the Emperor, couldn’t have resisted him, if not for the goodness and strength of her friends, the encouragement of the Jedi who had come before. And Ben, with his generosity and devotion. How she missed her brother but every day, she swears that she can feel him with her, making sure she was alright.

She was the last Skywalker now, and with the title, she would make it her mission to go and try to find Force sensitives with the help of Rey, Finn, Poe, Chewie, and of course the droids. She’d teach them a new Jedi Order: not to be afraid of the dark, to embrace it, because only then shall balance exist within oneself. To let in the light also meant accepting the darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for following along on Elektra's journey. Thank you for the support and the love! <3


	21. Alternative Ending

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this because after killing off Ben I felt sad and well, he deserved more screentime. So have this.

Ben Solo landed his TIE scout beside an old Rebellion X-wing and he couldn’t help but pausing to stare at the two ships. A sister and a brother, one of light and one of dark; two sides of the same coin. 

Something tingled at the base of his skull, a familiar awareness . . . Bre! But she couldn’t sense him and he knew it was because she was in trouble, Palpatine had done something to the point that all her senses were focused on that. His hand tightened on his father’s blaster, sprinting for the monlith and ducked beneath it, launching himself into the shaft. Nothing would stop him from reaching her . . . until he had caught himself on one of the massive chains dangling from the ceiling. 

“Ow.” He mutters, looking down. 

The floor was so far below him that it was lost in the shadow. Too far to climb down quickly, probably too far to jump down safely.  _ Probably. _ Bre had healed him, he had his mother’s love, his father’s guidance, and even fought with the Resistance. All of it made him forgive and accept himself, but there was still a person who was struggling. Bre.

Bre never forgave herself for what had happened, blaming herself which is why she chose to do good; why she believed she could never go back to who she was. She corrected her wrongs but she still didn’t accept it, believing that there had to be more that she could’ve done and Ben needed her to know that she was forgiven. Because he now fully comprehended what his sister was trying to make up for. 

Bre blamed herself for the creation of Kylo Ren, for allowing Ben to continue down the path of the dark side and from that, she ignored her training of being a Jedi and became Elektra Ren. A fierce warrior trained by the Knights of Ren, the sister of Kylo Ren, and a Stormtrooper commander. She dropped the name Bre ever since and she couldn’t return to it until she could extinguish the darkness she helped to create. And she had. 

_ Kylo Ren is dead. My son is alive. _ Han had told him. 

When Bre stabbed him with his lightsaber, she did kill Kylo Ren. And when she healed him, Ben had been reborn. 

He needed his sister to know, to understand, to see for herself. There was hope for her. And so, Ben Solo called on the Force, and dropped. 

“The ritual begins!” The Emperor cried out, and the mass followers surrounding them responded with a ceremonial chant so loud and deep it shook the very ground. “She will strike me down, and pledge herself as a Sith.” 

The lightning in the cavernous cathedral intensified, reflected against Palpatine’s milk blind eyes as Elektra swallowed her sadness which went down painfully. 

The robed figures had not bothered Ben at all when he was here last, but this time they launched themselves at him with fury. He blasted them easily, one shot for every kill. During his run, one tried to blast him from behind but missed terribly as he aimed his blaster backwards without even looking and shot the figure directly in the face. 

He reached the end of the Sith monoliths, sliding out on his feet with the blaster aimed out in front just in case of any other figures. None. He began running around the corner but then stopped as familiar figures manifested in the flashing dark, seeing Vicrul and his scythe, Kuruk and his plasma blaster, and Cardo with his arm cannon. Ben darts his eyesight over to the left, seeing the other three enclosing on him. His Knights. 

For the briefest moment, Ben actually thought they’d come to help but hate rolled off them in waves like fetid air. The Knights of Ren had never been his. They had belonged to the Emperor all along. 

A final betrayal. 

Snoke had been nothing more than a pawn. The Emperor had whispered poison to Ben his whole life. Now even the Knights, those whom he thought his faithful brothers behind his sister, were raising their weapons for the kill. 

They surrounded him slowly, like predators stalking their prey, a move that he’d seen Bre do a lot whenever they had battled each other. Of course he would have, they trained her to fight while Ben went through his trials to earn his place. Everything was all coming together now, like pieces to a puzzle. They could touch the Force in a small way and he could take two or three at a time, but he didn’t stand a chance against all of them at once; not just armed with a blaster. 

Maybe it had been premature to throw his lightsaber into the sea, but what more could there be asked of him? He certainly was the child of Han Solo. 

In the distance, Ben heard the indinstive chanting and knew that he was running out of time. He was so close.

_ Bre, _ he shouted through their connection but there was nothing. It worried him. He needed to be there for his sister! 

He tried to run but Cardo aimed his arm cannon at him and Ben stumbled backwards in the middle. They weren’t going to let him go without a fight. 

“She will draw her weapon,” Palpatine intoned.

Elektra’s face was blank as she reached for Anakin’s lightsaber once again, igniting it at her side. 

“She will come to me.” The crowd responded with a collective yell. 

Elektra stepped closer, smelling Palpatine’s like rotten meat and she gazed over at the hooded Sith followers. 

Ben blasted Cardo away from him with his hand, sending him onto this back and Ushar and Ap’lek had done the same with Ben. They shot him back into Vicrul who tried to swing at him with his scythe but Ben ducked under, only to get hit in the left side of the face with Ushar’s club. Trudgen then came, the blunt end of his vibrocleaver getting Ben in the right side of the face and Ushar gets him again, whacking him from under the chin which sent his head backwards upon impact. Cardo then got up, punching Ben in the gut with his arm cannon which robbed the boy from air. Down on his knees he fell, holding where he had been hit and stared up at him, getting another hit to the face. 

The Knights, in their supreme arrogance, backed away and allowed Ben to gain his feet. He seemed defenseless to them. They must have never really respected him, or even his abilities, to give him ground now. Ben sucked in air as they circled for another attack. 

“She will take her revenge for her family!” Palpatine boomed. 

Elektra continued to approach, his being was intoxicating to the point that she found herself raising her weapon. It reminded her of her dark mirrored self in the Death Star;  _ Don’t be afraid of who you are. _ Those same words that her mother spoke to her, because she knew that Elektra had Vader in her. Which had sparked a new question. Did Leia know this was going to happen? 

“And with the stroke of her sader, the Sith are reborn!” She was only a foot away from him now, lightsaber raised, both hands on the hilt as she stared him down as he spoke with a haunting grin, “The Jedi are dead!” 

Elektra was ready to strike until she finally felt it. Felt  _ him _ . Not Kylo Ren, but someone she had longed to see for a long time. The person she and her parents, and even Luke, had fought for. Ben Solo, surrounded by the Knights of Ren with nothing to save him. 

The left side of his face was bruised and cut, and the bottom lip had been split open. He had been breathing heavily, using his energy and called out to her, finally reaching her through their connection. He had been there for a while but Elektra hadn’t sensed it, her mind was blocked and something told her it had been Palpatine’s doing. Shutting her off to the world, believing she had no other choice than to become one with the dark path. 

He acknowledged her, and Elektra’s lip parted in surprise.

_ I’m here, _ Ben told her.  _ I’m right here, Bre.  _

Bre . . . The name felt so much more natural coming from him. It made her heart swell and relief filled her to the point that tears came to her eyes, threatening to release. That one word, just that  _ one _ word, told her everything she needed to know.

Their connection was different now. It was like coming home. How it should have been all along. A true dyad. One that Palpatine and Snoke had robbed them of. 

“Do it!” Palpatine screamed and Elektra pulled away from Ben, staring at the corpsed man. “Do not hesitate! Show no mercy! Make the sacrifice and become Darth Neptum!”

Elektra lowered the lightsaber behind her back with her right hand as if readying for a massive blow and reached for the Force, the effort making her eyes sting. Luke had projected himself on Crait, and Leia gave everything she had to send a final thought to Ben. Both manifestations of the same power and now, Elektra would use it in her own way. 

The Emperor leaned forward on the harness with anticipation. 

She raised her hand, showing him that it was empty, that she had projected her weapon away. Elektra, right then, witnessed the dawning horror as he realized that Ben found a way through his mental block that he’d done on her. That her and Ben’s bond that’d been refined in the fire of mutual searching, shared grief, rage and hate, but also compassion and empathy, was the one thing he had not foreseen. 

The moment Ben felt the grip of the legacy Skywalker lightsaber in his palm, he knew it belonged to him, an extension of his very own self. He raised it slowly, relishing the feel of it. 

The Knights were startled, backing away a few steps. 

_ Surprise, _ he imagined his father saying as he opened up his arms, palms facing up as he gave a shrug.

He attacked in a swing, striking both Vicrul and Cardo, twirling around and batting Ap’lek’s axe away from him. He then spins the lightsaber around in his right hand, before making more blows.

Elektra grabbed Leia’s lightsaber from where she had hooked it to her belt, behind her back and ignited the blue blade at her side in a swinging motion. Around her, the crimson guards formed, raising their blasters and fired as the Ommin harness moved away out of line. She deflected one blast with her good hand, sending it careening into the abdomen of one of the guards while whipping her lightsaber around to block the rest. 

She drew on Ben’s strength and he drew on her fighting skills to out match the Knights since they had taught her which he grinned at. Just like before, they were separate but also together, Elektra battling the guards, Ben battling the Knights. 

_ Behind you, _ she warned, and he brought up his saber to block his back, bending over as Trudgen’s vibrocleaver came down and smacked the blue blade. He blows out air from his cheeks, exhaling effortlessly and extends upwards to block Vicrul’s scythe, throwing out his left hand to Force push Ushar back into a nearby pit. 

Ben then throws off Vicrul, stabbing him and as his body falls, he goes directly for Trudgen to repeat the same maneuver. He whirls, slicing through Kuruk, sprinting at Ap’lek and flipped over his body as the knight tried to swing at him with his axe. Ben grabbed onto his shoulder, landing behind him and stabbed through his back, removing the blade. Ben huffs, feeling energized and stared at the bodies of his fallen former comrades. 

“Bre,” he shifts his gaze towards the throne room and bolts for it.

Elektra used the Force to turn a guard the opposite way, having him shoot another as she dodged a blaster bolt. Her lightsaber spins around again, sending blaster bolts back at two guards, leaving two left. She throws her hand out to her side, using the Force to collapse one of the remaining guards under his own weight, kneeling as she does and throws him back into the darkness. She then spun up, facing the last one but Ben got there first, tossing him aside like a piece of garbage. 

Ben walks up to her, both of them facing each other for the space of two breaths. 

_ We’re stronger together than apart in the Force, _ he once told her and thinking back to it gave her a boost of confidence and determination. The Solo twins were together again. 

As one, they turned to Palpatine, dropping into fighting stances and raised their lightsabers. 

The Emperor snarled. “Stand together, die together.” He raised his rotting hands and impaled them with the Force. 

Their backs arched against their wills, their arms violently being thrown back as they lost all feeling, lightsabers clattering across the ground. The pain was breathtaking. Palpatine yanked the twins towards himself, their feet lifting off the ground, bodies flying across the floor as they were helpless against his power. Down on their knees they went and as they connected to the ground, a powerful surge from the both of them zapped the Emperor. 

He gasped sharply, his hands flickering with blue electric tendrils. He watched in suspense as they began knitting themselves back together, bones regrowing, pale flesh closing over them. “The life force of your bond,” his voice tinged with wonder. “A dyad in the Force.” 

His gleeful triumphant thoughts washed over Elektra as she struggled against his grip, unable to move. He had won. At last. All those years, all that searching. He tried to create a dyad with Anakin, as his master tried to create one with him. The Rule of Two, a Master always in desperate search of a yet more powerful apprentice, was a pale imitation, an unworthy but necessary successor to the older, purer doctrine of the Dyad. 

Of course, the grandchildren of Anakin would be the ones to have it. To possess such raw potential and power.

“Unseen for generations,” he crowed. “And now the power of two restores the one, true Emperor.” 

Ben desperately tried to reach his hand out to Bre. He knew—no, he  _ sensed _ her not being able to withstand what Palpatine was about to do to them. She had healed the vexis, fought Ben then almost gave him all of her energy to heal him, and she hadn’t rest once. Bre was running on empty, and all he wanted was to hold her like how he had when they were kids. 

Palpatine raised his perfect, healed hands, and called out on all the dark power of the Force and the Sith who had come before him, and pulled the life from their very bodies. It poured from them like a river of light, leaving them weaker and weaker. 

Elektra screamed in anguish while Ben was able to withstand some of it, and hearing his sister’s cry only made him more upset that he couldn’t fight against what was happening. 

The Emperor laughed as his body strengthened, becoming whole once again. The milky film faded from his eyes, revealing golden iries around obsidian pupils and when there was nothing left to take, Elektra and Ben’s bodies gave out. Ben falling onto his back in a heap, his legs creased out to the side and Elektra landing directly on her left side, her temple whacking off the ground harshly which cut the corner of her eyebrow. 

Elektra and Ben still layed on the floor as Emperor Palpatine released himself from the Ommin harness and drifted down. He stood straight and strong now. Invincible. His voice raised to the throng. “Look what you have made.” Their chanted response was thunderous, and he stood, hands slightly raised as if absorbing their worship as power. 

Ben forced his near lifeless body over, seeing his sister as she remained limp beside him. “Bre,” he weakly called to her. He could barely feel anything from her, and it made him afraid. 

He struggled onto his hands and knees, inching towards her and Palpatine sensed him, losing his celebratory smile and scowled at the boy. 

“Bre?” He tries again, his voice hoarse. 

Elektra’s eyelids were heavy but she managed to peel them open just enough to see a blurry image of her brother trying to reach out to her.

“Bre—” Instantly, Palpatine lifted Ben with no more than a thought, paralyzing his body as he hovered and faced his enemy once again. 

“You believed that you both could defeat me,” Emperor Palpatine remarks, pointing at him. That was the thing of taking a person’s life force, you don’t just get healed, you also get a look inside of them; at who they are, what they thought. “But you made  _ this _ possible, young Solo. And now, your coming together is your undoing.” 

“It’ll be yours.” Ben remarks against his hold. 

Palpatine’s hand jerks forwards and Ben is sent back through the cathedral violently, landing directly onto an outcropping that bordered the edge of a flashing abyss, hitting it with a thunderous crack. He slips over and down, but not before he managed to capture himself in a groove. 

“Be-en.” Elektra’s weak voice cried out as she felt the impact of his hit throughout her whole entire spine, the exact location where he’d struck. She barely could draw breath as she focused on where her brother had been thrown to. 

“Do not fear their feeble attack, my faithful.” The Emperor sits upon the throne, Ben already forgotten as his lips spread apart into a nightmarish grin and lifted his face to Exegol’s sky. 

Elektra strained herself, trying to support herself up on her left shaking arm and caught sight of Palpatine. 

“Nothing will stop the return of the Sith!” 

He raised his hands as though reaching toward the battle overhead. Even through her haze of weakness and exhaustion, Elektra could sense him drawing on the Force with her and Ben’s power. She knew what he was about to do. 

_ “No!”  _ She croaked out. 

Tears streamed down her face as he used their solten power to create a conduit of Force lightning. Writhing, crooked tendrils of light shot from his fingers, coalesced into a thick stream of light that burst into the sky, flooding the Resistance ships. They sparked defenselessly against the onslaught, tilting on their axis. 

The Emperor would not stop laughing, light still shooting upward from his fingertips. Elektra dropped onto her back, hating the grating and smug sound as she watched black debris raining down everywhere, trailing smoke and fire. She was near death and she knew it with certainty. Elektra didn’t want the last thing she’d see to be her friends dying, nor the last thing she heard was Palpatine’s laugh. 

She reached for Ben, hardly feeling him. Their connection had weakened when the Emperor stole their life force.

Elektra’s limbs refused any order to move, much less stand, so she just began sobbing. Her tears fell down the sides of her face, knowing she had failed so utterly. 

The Emperor’s power was beautiful to behold, reaching ever higher, spreading out like a flower of light. In a way, she and Ben had made that. But the Emperor was using it for unspeakable evil. And now she was nearly dying. 

Slowly, Elektra remembered her training and she drew in a deep breath, trying to collect her thoughts and settle her emotions to focus. “Be with me.” She begs in a whisper. 

She touched the Force, and it would be a part of her always. Like how her mother said. 

“Be with me. Be with  _ us _ .” She pleas for Ben, too.

The battle above disappeared. Instead, Elektra saw a perfect sky, vast with stars. Peaceful. Light filled. It was like she was staring through a window to somewhere else, a place between places. 

“Be with us.” 

Her body relaxed. She embraced peace and calmness. 

**_Bre,_ ** the voice she’d been hearing for so long came to her,  **_you will try._ **

Then others joined from all different directions. 

**_Ben,_ **

**_Bre,_ **

**_Ben,_ **

**_Bre,_ **

She recognized them all because they made themselves known to her, prescenes filling her awareness. Some ancient, some still anchored to the living in a strange way.

**_Bring back the balance, Ben and Bre, as I did._ **

That same voice that had been whispering to her to find the Skywalker legacy lightsaber, that voice that led her to the Jedi Temple on Ahch-To, that voice that led her to Vader’s helmet, that voice that led her to Vader’s wayfinder . . . It finally dawned on her who it had been. It had been the very same person that her family saw in her: Anakin Skywalker.

A female then speaks,  **_In the night, find the light._ **

Mace Windu was next: **_You’re not alone._ **

**_Alone, never have you been,_ ** Master Yoda says.

**_Every Jedi who ever lived, lives in the both of you._ ** It was Qui-gon Jinn.

Anakin then spoke again, his voice louder than the rest.  **_The Force surrounds you.._ **

**_Let it guide you._ **

**_As it guided us._ **

**_Feel the Force flowing through you._ **

**_Let it lift you!_ ** Anakin encourages her which sends a surge through her body.

Adi Gallia softly speaks:  **_Rise._ **

Elektra turned onto her left side, smacking her right wounded hand onto the ground and she pushed. She could feel her strength returning but her body, like her hand, was still injured. 

**_We stand behind both of you_ ** . She could sense Qui-gon nodding to her and Ben. 

She then felt her connection to Ben growing once again. Ben’s ankle had been twisted and he was pretty sure he’d broken at least two ribs, but he was climbing back up to the throne room. 

**_Rise in the Force._ ** Yoda cheers the twins on. 

Elektra got a knee beneath her, leveraging herself up onto her toes. 

The climb up was excruciating. Each time Ben reached for a handhold, a hot knife of pain stabbed his left side. Dizziness threatened to send him tumbling down into the abyss, but he kept on, one hand over the other, listening to the voices. 

**_In the heart of a Jedi lies their strength,_ ** Kanan Jarrus comments. 

Elektra grunts in pain, crouching and gasping for air. Her muscles didn’t want to obey. Every movement turned her very bones to knives of pain. 

**_Rise_ ** , Obi-Wan utters. 

Qui-gon does the same.  **_Rise._ **

**_Ben, Bre,_ ** Elektra gasped, her breath getting caught in her throat as she heard Luke’s deep and insistent voice that rose above all the others.  **_The Force will be with you._ **

**_Always._ ** Leia finishes. 

With all of her strength, the last Jedi rises, standing tall as her breathing becomes heavy. Ben’s fingers grasp the top, hauling himself over the side and dragging himself onto his feet. He began limping himself forwards, standing next to Bre. 

The avalanche of light from Palpatine’s fingertips ceased, him rising from the throne and stepped forward to get a good look at the young bruised and determined twins. 

“I will  _ not _ deny my anger,” Bre announces to him.

Ben then finishes with, “and I will _ not _ reject my love.” 

Ben then summoned Leia’s lightsaber which skidded across the stone and smacked into his right hand and Elektra reached for Anakin’s, the blades igniting. 

“We’re the grandchildren of Anakin  _ and _ Darth Vader. We are the light and we are the darkness.” 

“So be it.” The Emperor’s eyes glowed with lingering power. “Let your deaths be the final word in the story of rebellion.” He reached with his arms, sending Force lightning zagging toward them. 

Elektra and Ben whipped up their lightsabers and blocked their individual attacks. The impact nearly knocked both twins from their feet, but they reached for the Force, and stood their ground. 

Palpatine’s attack intensified and Elektra grunted as her teeth clenched, trying to hold it off. “You two are nothing!” He yelled at them. “Just the children of a Scrumrat—a scoundrel! You’re no match for the power in me. I am all the Sith, I am the Emperor!” 

Elektra and Ben’s wrists felt like it was going to break from the pulses pushing them back on their blades, making their footing stumble. But it wouldn’t. Not today. 

“We’re Solos,” Ben nods to him, agreeing, a plan churning in his mind.

Elektra sensed it, smirking, already on board with it. “And  _ we’re _ Skywalkers.” 

She brought her lightsaber over, crossing its blade with Ben’s, creating an impenetrable shield. Together they stepped forward, closing in the distance between them, pushing back against his onslaught. Every step was anguish for the twins, taking everything they had left to give. 

The lightning began to feed back on the Emperor. It ravaged his face, and he tossed his head back in agony, and in denial of what was happening. Elektra and Ben pursued mercilessly, one foot in front of the other, absorbing power from the Force. Finally, they were ready. The both of them gathered their strength, their faith in the Force, their love for their friends and for each other, their anger, and they thrust it all at the Emperor. 

He staggered backward, his own power reflected against him. It devoured him completely, ripping away his newly healed fingers, searing away the skin of his face, his very bones, until he was disintegrating. 

Ben and Elektra then sent out one last thought to him.  _ All the Jedi live in us.  _

They throw another pulsating thrust at him and like a collapsing stardust, what remained of him coalesced into a single point, which then exploded with a massive shock wave that sent Elektra and Ben sliding back on their heels. The Sith throne shattered. The ceiling bouldered down around them, crushing thousands of disciples in the amphitheater.

As the smoke cleared, Elektra gazed at the tumbled wreckage of the cathedral around her and her brother. They were covered head to toe in dust and gravel, and her hair had been knocked loose from it’s ponytail, framing her bloody face. She couldn’t feel her arms and legs. Vaguely, she heard the clank of her lightsaber hitting the ground. When had she let go of it? 

Ben peers down to the lightsaber then up at her, she looked dazed, her eyes staring out into nothingness. “Bre?” 

She reached for the Force one last time . . . She felt Rey and Finn, felt how they were safe. She reached even more, feeling Poe, Rose, Vira, Meredith, Rhys, Connix, Chewie, Lando . . . 

Giving absolutely everything was no big deal at all, she and Ben had saved them all. 

Her legs gave out, crumpling towards the ground but Ben caught her fast, sinking down with her. She was exhausted, her heartbeat slow and skin was growing cold, and Ben felt the tears coming to his eyes; his very own breath shaking. She had been good. Kind. No matter what had happened between them, what he’d done, she’d always shown him compassion. She couldn’t die like this. 

“Hold on,” he whispers, cradling her in his lap, in his arms, “I got you.” 

Ben placed his hand on her abdomen, closing his eyes. He didn’t have much strength left but he called on the Force, about to do something he’d never done before. Fortunately, Bre had shown him how to give. 

Ben poured everything into her. He found reservoirs he didn’t know he had, giving her what she had given him. A part of himself. 

Elektra drew in a deep breath, feeling her heartbeat getting stronger and rested her hand on top of his. He opened his eyes, looking down at her and she sat up gently, staring at him and he paused, waiting for her to be angry with him, or something. But she wasn’t. 

“Ben,” she whispered, smiling and it was the greatest gift she could have given him. 

His heart was full as Bre wrapped her arms around him, giving him a hug and he held her tight. 

“You came home.”

He nods, “I did, because of you.” Ben smiles wide, softly chuckling in her embrace. “I love you, Bre.” 

“And I love you, Ben.” 

Rey and Finn scanned the horizon from the Falcon’s viewport. Debris was falling everywhere. Exegol was going to be a wasteland after this. Not that it had been paradise to begin with. But all those Star Destroyers were going to smolder for years. 

There was no sign of Elektra. 

Neither Chewie nor Lando insisted that they leave the cockpit, so Rey and Finn stayed, searching, searching, searching . . .

“There, look!” Rey pointed to a battered T-65 X-wing.

Finn then hollered into his wristlink: “Red Five is in the air! Elektra’s alive!” 

“I see her,” Poe acknowledged and even noticed Ben’s TIE flying up after the X-wing.

Finn didn’t think the moment could get any better, but then a transmission beeped on the comms console. Chewie jabbered with excitement. 

“People are rising up all over the galaxy, Poe.” Finn informed him. “We did it!” 

He heard the smile in the pilot’s voice as he said, “We did it.” 

On Endor’s forest moon, Wicket stood in the exact spot he had thirty-one years ago when rejoicing in the destruction of the Death Star. He had been a cub then, his fur still a youthful brown. Debris had rained down in the sky for a decade afterward, but life on Endor would never go quietly, and the moon fought back with lust verdancy. 

Then the First Order had come. 

Wicket pointed toward the sky as a chunk of Star Destroyer fell like a fiery comet. “See that?” He said to his tiny son, Pommet, in Ewokese. “Our friends did that.” 

“Princess Leia?” Pommet asked wide eyed, for he’d heard all the stories. “C-3PO?” 

Wicket nodded. He had no doubt the golden, godlike one was responsible for yet another deliverance.

Arriving back to Ajan Kloss was a sight to see. Everyone was hugging, rejoicing at being alive. Finn and Rey jogged down the Falcon’s access ramp into the jungle, most of her ally ships had returned to their own systems and planets, but a few had decided to follow the surviving Resistance ships home. Their base was going to be fuller and busier than ever. 

The lander touched down next, and BB-8 rolled down the ramp followed by a jubilant Rose. He found D-O and the cone droid scream-babbled with happiness. He plunged toward the larger droid and whipped circled around him, barking with welcome. 

Everyone around them was reuniting: C-3PO greeted R2-D2 as he was craned out of Poe’s fighter, Beaumont and Klaud and Connix were sharing a laugh. D’Acy and Tyce hugged, Vira ran to Rhys and indulged him into a long kiss. Even the orbaks were celebrating, tossing their manes and stomping on cue for the pilots in exchange for treats. 

Chewie was lifting Rose off her feet when Finn saw Maze interrupt. “This is for you.” He got down on one knee, and when they were of height, she placed Han’s Medal of Bravery in Chewie’s hand. “He’d want you to have it,” she added.

Finn caught sight of Poe stepping away from his X-wing and giving a friendly nod to Zorii. He ran for the pilot, calling out his name and Poe turned, pointing a finger at him with a grin. They pull each other in a tight hug, Poe placing his hand on the back of Finn’s neck and pulls away, giving him a kiss. One of partnership, of mutual love. 

Finn pulled away, smiling wide and went back, kissing Poe once more before Rey came over and gave Poe a hug herself. 

The pilot then lost his grin, thinking. “Leai thought they’d destroyed the Emperor at the Battle of Endor but he came back. More powerful than ever.” 

“You think he might come back again,” Rey said, sensing his hesitation. 

“Maybe,” Poe replied. He was acting general now, and like any good general he was anticipating what fight still lay ahead. “Or some other evil will rise. Evil always rises.” 

“Naw,” Finn shook his head.

Poe gave him a questioning look. 

“What El did with Ben—what Rey and I felt that they did—there’s nothing to worry about anymore.” 

“Elektra,” Rey uttered, dashing off away from the boys and began searching through the crowd. 

Lando looked around at the Ajan Kloss base. Everyone knew who he was, but it was different, being known without knowing. Of all his oldest, best friends, only Chewie was left. He was happy for everyone though. This new galaxy, the New New Republic, was for the next generations to deal with. He’d get himself back to Pasaana soon. In the meantime, he was just glad to have helped. 

“Where are you from, General?” He turned over his shoulder, seeing Jannah, the kid from Kef Bir. 

“The gold system,” he said. “What about you?” 

“I don’t know,” she replied, and her gaze turned distant. “I don’t know.” 

It hit him like a proton torpedo to the gut. He wasn’t returning to Pasaana after all. Thousands, maybe millions of kids had been taken by the First Order like his own little girl. And some of them, a very few, were special. The ones like Finn and Jannah, who had somehow managed to shake their First Order conditioning and make right choices. 

Lando and the Lady Luck would help these special kids. Find their families, if that’s what they wanted. Help them discover their place in the new galaxy.

“Well,” he said to Jannah. “Let’s find out.” 

The wondrous smile she gave him told him all he needed to know. 

Elektra landed Luke’s X-wing and hopped out of the cockpit as Ben landed his TIE. BB-8 rolled toward her, warbling with excitement. She knelt down, giving a small smile to the orange and white droid and she saw her reflection in his lens. Her hair was long and flowing, her left temple was purple and blue, blood was smeared in with dust on her face, and her white shirt was dirty with black smudges and drops of her own blood. She looked like an absolute wreck. 

A female voice knocked her from her trance, peering to see Rey running for her and she stood, taking long strides towards the girl. Rey tried to speak but Elektra didn’t give her a chance, she cupped her cheeks gently and kissed her passionately. 

Rey kissed back an instant, resting her hands on Elektra’s cheeks as well and kept her there for a moment. 

Elektra was the first to pull away, looking into Rey’s beautiful eyes. “So you know,” she whimpered, her voice wavering as her eyes became glassy with tears once again. “So you know.” 

Rey nodded. “I know,” Elektra then pulled her into a hug, Rey looping her arms around her waist.

Ben steps up slowly and Rey looks to him, mouthing a “thank you”. He gives her a nod. 

The two girls and Ben wandered through the base, Elektra taking strength and joy in everyone’s gaiety. People clapped her on the back as she passed, word already having spread that Palpatine was dead and it had been because of her and Ben. She glances over her shoulder briefly, seeing Ben getting pats as well. 

She turns forwards and spotted Poe and Finn, shouldering through the crowd, looking for her, too. Their gazes caught and it took all of Elektra to not burst into tears.  _ Her friends.  _

Finn was the first to move, hugging her and she couldn’t hold it any longer. She began crying in his arms and he held her closer to his chest, cradling her head delicately. Poe then wrapped his good arm around the both of them and Rey joined in on the other side, them all enclosing Elektra to let her know that they all cared deeply for her. 

Her tears died down but Finn was the one that began crying now. “El, I’ve been meaning to tell you—”

“I already knew,” she said, thinking of the way his presence had become so bright in her mind. “The moment you held the lightsaber, I knew you could touch the Force. I was just waiting for you to tell me.” 

Finn smiles, lifting his head up to see Ben awkwardly standing by and motions for him to join in. Poe moves, making room for their newest member of the team and he joins. 

A warmth flowed through the five of them, a connection separate from the Force and in its own way just as powerful. Elektra didn’t care to put a name to it. She only wanted to live in the moment and let it flow over her like water in the desert. 

The Falcon touched down on an empty desert plain. The twin suns of Tatooine had yet to show there but early morning light washed the land in pink and white. Elektra and Ben descended the ramp and squinted against the reflected brightness. The place was so stark, the ground so bleached. 

Elektra stepped forward, toward a domed abode building jutting from the sand with Ben following after. 

The adobe building had an arched doorway, but years of wind and sand had half buried it. There’d be no accessing the Lars homestead that way. They stepped past the building and discovered what appeared to be a large sinkhole, half filled with sand. A close look revealed an arched window and a half covered door at the base of the sinkhole, built into adobe walls. 

The twins trekked down the sand drift, standing near the base of a broken condenser tower. 

So many memories of yearning, loss, worry, depreciation and love, from Luke and from Anakin. Elektra and Ben could _ feel _ them. There was a cavelike entrance in the wall and both was drawn forward, passing into shadow their eyes had adjusted, noting a long dining table, covered with dust. Ben ran a figure through the dirt, tracing a line of soft blue. Luke and Anakin both dined here. 

An adjoining alcove contained some kind of beverage dispenser, but most of the levers and paneling had been scavenged, probably by the local Jawas. A single tall beverage cup made of plastex lay on its side, oddly pristine. 

Elektra wandered around for a few more minutes and discovered what used to be a speeder garage, Luke’s sleeping loft, and the remains of an electrostatic repeller that had probably kept sand and dust away for years. She stood in the center for a while, taking it all in. Two generations of her family had been here, and she and Ben were the third. 

“This is where it all started,” Elektra whispered aloud to herself. 

Ben overheard her. “Our family.” 

The cracked adobe walls and jutting pipes made for an easy climb. Ben reached the top, helping up his sister and he shook off his bad ankle. They had already visited Corellia, Chandrila, and Ahch-To, even Kef Bir. Tatooine was their fifth, and final stop. 

“This was the last place.” She informs her brother with a tender smile.

Light snagged Elektra’s eye, and she turned her head. Ben followed with his attention.

Leia and Luke stood on the edge of the homestead, glowing blue, smiling at the twins. They were proud of who they became, of what they learned, and how their bond is what keeps the Force in balance. Elektra, even Ben, missed them both so much. 

“Let’s go home.” Ben smiles.

They turn to head to the Falcon but Elektra pauses, seeing the vast desert morning filling the sky. Tatooine’s twin suns rose on a new day and she smiled with euphoria, thinking about how Anakin and Luke had both watched that very same sunrise. Ben stood as well, inspecting the beauty.

On Ajan Kloss, Finn sits in a circle with young kids, all around the ages of six and eleven, telling them the story of the Solo Twins, the grandchildren of Darth Vader, niece and nephew of Luke Skywalker, the offspring of Han Solo and Leia Organa. They were few of the many that were saved by Lando and Jannah from the First Order, the ones who were orphans or couldn’t remember their families just stayed with the Resistance. 

The story of the Solo Twins had been one that the kids were anticipating for two weeks now. The brother and sister had been gone, visiting their family’s planets to get more in touch with their lineage and the kids hadn’t met them yet, but they already idolized both And Finn believed that that’s what his friends deserved, they helped save the galaxy from Palpatine and it needed to be told. 

Rey sat with D-O, watching a little girl raise her hand. “Mr. Dameron, are they ever coming back?” 

Finn nods, so sure of it. “They’ll come back. And when they do, we’ll be here waiting. All of us.” The kids smiled with relief. “Now, you all head out and play.” 

They didn’t need to be asked twice. They all jumped to their feet, dashing out into the jungle and D-O went after them. 

Finn stands, helping up Rey. “Anything from her?” 

“Not since Ahch-To.” Rey shakes her head. “It’s been almost three weeks now.” 

Finn then felt something, a small tremor in the Force and Rey felt it, too. They hurried, seeing the Falcon touching down on the jungle floor. The ramp opened and out came their friends: Elektra with her haversack, wearing a sleeveless dark blue tunic and Han’s brown jacket, her hair blowing back as a cool breeze swept through. Ben wore a long sleeved cream colored tunic and Han’s old black vest.

Rey rushes forward, giving her girlfriend a hug and a welcoming kiss on the cheek. “I missed you.” 

“I missed you too,” she cooes to Rey and then steps up to Finn, hugging him. “And I missed you.” 

“Likewise.” 

“Hey!!” Poe’s voice boomed and Finn let Elektra go, allowing him to come and get in his hug. “You realize how constantly annoying it was hearing these two talk about you?” He motions to Rey and Finn in a joking manner. 

“Alright, alright.” Finn waves him off as Ben comes over, smiling and greets them too. 

A kid then gasped. “It’s the twins!” 

The brother and sister turned, seeing a group of kids running up to up, all of them speaking at once. 

“You’re really here!”

“We heard so much about you!” 

They both smiled, kneeling down to their heights. “Hi, nice to meet you all.” Finn and Rey had told them about the kids, how they came to Ajan Kloss and had been waiting to greet them. 

“You have it with you?” The little girl that spoke to Finn from before asks with enthusiasm. “Your lightsaber? Rey told us about it.”

She stood again as Ben moved to give her room, right hand reaching to her side, pulling it out and they all gasped in awe. She then pointed it upwards, igniting it by pressing the activation button by the emitter which made their eyes get that twinkle. 

Her lightsaber glowed lilac-purple. It was single bladed, hilt was grey and had been styled like how Ben’s was but she kept the black rubberized grip ribbing pattern that Anakin had on the bottom of his on hers. It was beautiful, fitting so perfectly in her hand and tied into who she was—who she is—and she  _ loved it _ . 

“You have yours?” She then looks to Ben. 

Ben takes out his, igniting it to reveal his own light green blade. The hilt silver was built like Anakin’s but the bottom still contained the same reserve power cell, inert power insulator, and cooling vanes from his previous lightsaber. 

“Both of yours are each one half of another’s.” One replied smartly.

Ben nods happily, smiling. “Because we’re a balance. She’s a part of me, and I’m a part of her. A dyad.” He turns off his lightsaber, hooking it back to his belt and stands up, seeing an older brown alien coming over. Maz Kanata. 

“My dear,” Maz strolled over, eyeing his sister. “I once told you if you live long enough, you see the same eyes in different people. Kylo Ren has turned to Ben Solo. So _who are you?_ ”

She spoke before the tiny crowd and the daughter of Han and Leia peers around the base, to Rey, Finn, Poe, to the kids, to Ben then back. 

A gentle smile appeared on her lips. “I’m Bre Solo Skywalker.” 

The final, and official name on the list. She was a Jedi and a Solo, so Skywalker for a last name just felt right. Felt good. Maybe one day, after all his training was done, Ben would take on the name Skywalker, too. 

Bre Solo Skywalker had walked to the small mantle her and Ben created, reaching into her haversack to pull out Anakin’s lightsaber, placing it on her one shelf before grabbing Luke’s, her mother’s, and lastly, Kylo Ren’s that they both had fished out from the ocean with the Force. Her sitting them all side by side, on display next to the Jedi texts. 

Poe called out to notify everyone about lunch being ready and she moseyed on out, taking a look around the Resistance; her family. Connix and Rose were having a little double date with Rhys and Vira, Meredith was looking over a few things with Beaumont, Finn was talking to Chewie, and Rey had two plates in her hand, no doubt the other being for Bre. 

People were precious. They were life and light. Bre couldn’t have survived the Emperor, couldn’t have resisted him, if not for the goodness and strength of her friends, the encouragement of the Jedi who had come before. And Ben, with his generosity and devotion. She was so honored to have him by her side. Bre couldn’t imagine life without him. 

They were the last Solos, the last Skywalkers now, and with the title, they would make it their mission to go and try to find Force sensitives with the help of Rey, Finn, Poe, Chewie, and of course the droids. Her and Ben will teach them a new Jedi Order; to love who they want, to embrace both the light and the dark, that good and bad both exist in everyone and to use it for what is necessary because only then shall there be balance in the new galaxy. 


End file.
